Worth Trying For

A photo essay on persistence and purpose

With every step, we make a choice

To look ahead, 
fearing all the insurmountable trials 
and struggles which undoubtedly lie in front of us 

or

To look within, 
and smile over just how far we have come already.

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For a moment today, imagine being offered the task of rolling a boulder up to the summit of a mountain.

It is a thought experiment you may already know if you are familiar with the famous story of Sisyphus in Greek myth - and frankly, it sounds like the ultimate form of torture . . . Especially if the burden we are given is too heavy to push for very long, and the summit we are aiming for is too steep for us ever to actually reach.

But I wonder, what if the exact opposite fate were then to be offered to us instead?

What if someone were to say that the boulder could be taken away; and that, actually, there was no mountain for us to climb at all - thus leaving us with nothing heavy to hold . . . no path to climb . . . no goal to pursue . . . no summit to dream about - and literally nothing else worth striving for.

Doesn’t that seem like it might be an even worse kind of torture?

Now, obviously, this is all just a flight of the mind.

Our real choice in this life is never just a fools wager between fruitless toil, or total purposelessness.

But still, this example goes to show that sometimes a life of struggle is not only a “necessary evil” . . . but, actually, it is preferable to a life of comfort.

_

Without struggle, we would never know fear, despair, or pain. Yet, at the same time, we would also never know courage, resilience, persistence, or the achievement that comes through perseverance.

And sometimes, the most profound acts of heroism are not even necessarily about “overcoming a trial”, or “conquering an enemy”, or “reaching a summit”.

Rather, the are found in the very heart of struggle instead . . . whenever we choose to conduct ourselves with dignity and with grace, irrespective of the dread burdens which might otherwise weigh us down.

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www.georgebothamley.co.uk