Well darn, that title right there is one heck of a tall order. I suppose y’all are strapped in for quite the ride with me tonight. I’m taking a little break from the trip updates to write you this little piece of musing on priorities.
I’ve written on motivation a couple of times now but I haven’t really touched on that sensitive subject of priorities. I mean really – I don’t know that I’ve publicly delved into my priorities as such.
There are a lot of interesting questions related to how we form, or I suppose how I form my priorities – well, this is as good of a forum as any to address those questions. Sitting in a wicker chair as the flickering of warm orange candle light licks at the White washed Walls of my home. The play of candle light and unnatural glow from my phone screen must make quite an eerie sight. I suppose the residual light from the dying coals of my braiser Add a modicum of heat and a different kind of colour to the situation. In such a setting, how could one not yearn to delve into their deepest thoughts and consider the dark temptations that guide them through their lives. Heck, after that scene setting, who doesn’t urge me to run screaming from my own thoughts through my dark red door into the silvered world of a full-moon lit night. A darkened second day etched and transfixed by the silver beauty of the night goddess – mother moon.
All right, all right, you caught me – I’m avoiding the subject – and in such an obvious way!
What are my priorities and how do I understand them. Argh. Ahem. Well… Maybe I don’t know. Maybe that’s why this post is an adventure – for both of us. Let’s find out. What comes first in my mind? My first priority is the proper care, maintenance, and development of myself. I know that sounds pretty selfish coming from a Peace Corps volunteer living for two years in an isolated village in sub-Saharan Africa – but humor me for a moment. It’s quite a bit more complex than it seems. That priority – my health, safety, and future tie a series of responsibilities and priorities together. More than just being binding wire it’s the foundation on which all my other priorities and projects rest. Think about my responsibility to my family and loved ones, a definite high priority. To make them proud, to make something of myself and succeed to help support them later in life, to share my life and experiences with them so that they might learn and so that we might teach each other valuable lessons. To experience this wonderful existence together.
Think about my responsibility to myself and the priority of looking after my own health – of developing myself and becoming a stronger man. My own curiosity and desire for adventure.
And, my responsibility to the world – as the product of a strong middle-class family, as a blessed child of the developed world, as a man who has had and continues to access opportunity and resources limited to the select few who were fated to be born in this time, and lucky enough to enter into a country as affluent and rich in experiences and resources as America. As a man who desires to take my life by the reins and live my dreams. Those choices and actions fit into respective priorities but all build on that primary ranking. They all also come with responsibility – first to myself – to maintain my health in order to help others and then to the world – to share the gifts and blessings of a young bright life in the 1st world with those less fortunate. To grasp opportunity by the scruff of the neck and drag it kicking and screaming into the hands of those it might’ve attempted to pass by.
I guess this post is more about understanding ones responsibilities rather than priorities. But maybe the two dance along the path of life hand-in-hand.
Good night!
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