If someone were to tell you life is easy, they'd be incorrect.

If they were to tell you there's a specified path to contentment, they'd be misinformed.

If they were to tell you there's a book of answers to every question you'll come across, they'd be misled.

The point is not that life is easy, predictable, or defined.

The point is that despite the fact that it's none of those things,

you're capable of making something from it.

That from a seemingly endless barrage of unknowns

exists the pieces to build something truly extraordinary.

I came across a quote a few years ago from Abraham Maslow and a concept that was in Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death.

And the idea is we are simultaneously gods and worms.

Every once in a while you come across an idea that changes the way you see things.

That's definitely one of them, right?

A duality that is perpetually under tension.

Gods and worms.

We're animals, we're flesh and bone eroding by the day.

We're given a temporary stay on a giant rock rotating around the sun,

while simultaneously equipped with the power to not only be aware of that finitude,

but to transcend it, to dream, to see things that are not yet there, our minds are miraculous. We are both gods and worms.

So what do we do about this?

How about use the fact that we're going to die, the fact that in many ways we don't have control,

the fact that life is messy and unpredictable and often a maze of complete chaos,

to, rather than shrink because of it, take off the guardrails and reach for the heavens.

...