“I can participate in creating something I do not control.” -Peter Block, in The Answer To How Is Yes
(Bold claim coming…) This is life’s central tension.
We exist in a space that we have little (if any) control over. And if you don’t already know this, I predict the epiphany is not far off. Things happen – hard things, unexpected things, surprises, joy, pain – that we haven’t willed or executed into existence. While the things we strive to do often seem to slip through our fingers like sand.
Still we must participate. We must act and move within this space. We are responsible for living in a world that we can’t control. We don’t hold the reigns and yet we must resist the temptation to lie down, passively letting life happen around and to us.
What you do in this space – how you live in this tension – will define the world you live in. And it will define you: Who you are as a leader and follower and creature; as a worker and child and parent; as a teacher and friend and mentor.
You participate. You create. You don’t control. This tension isn’t going away; you were created to live in it. Your calling is to determine how this matters in your choices, actions, and relationships.
