There’s no easy way through life

MARK PAVILONS

We often underestimate how hard “easy” can be.
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
– Marie Curie

Life has never been easy, not now at the pinnacle of our technological prowess, and not way back then, when we huddled with another for heat in a cave.
We all know people who have had things come easy to them. Perhaps not many, but a few. They were blessed by a decent family, good education and solid work ethic.
We often hear stories of the opposite – those who came from nothing and worked their butts off to achieve relative success. Who doesn't love a good “rags to riches” story? It's been said the road to Easy Street goes through the sewer!
As a 63-year-old Boomer, I look at the current generation and believe they have it relatively easy. They've got the world's knowledge at their fingertips, They can benefit from – if they listen – their parents' wisdom, garnered through decades of trial and error. They can enjoy home-cooked meals in a comfortable home. They have access to the parents' cars, or can Uber when necessary.
Similarly, I feel that growing up in the 1970s and 1980s was pretty easy. We weren't burdened by politics or conflicts on the evening news. We were free to explore – our neighbourhoods, parks, and even those towering trees that almost always meant doom.
We laughed at silly things and enjoyed just hanging out.
We didn't worry about money – if we had a few bucks or leftover allowance money, that was good enough for us.
People have always been at the whim of circumstances, the shape of our modern society and immediate surroundings. These are advantages.
What's hard, even for an old dog like me, is living life to the fullest, and ferreting out those special nuggets, each and every day. Sure, I'm reminded of those things, but opening my eyes fully requires some effort, let me tell you.
My oldest daughter recently went through the entire house hunting, buying, mortgage experience. She and her boyfriend are lucky in that we, as parents, provided advice, assistance and yes, odds and ends to help them furnish their new abode.
I jokingly refer to our house as Chez Pavilons Bargain Centre, open 24/7.
While they're settling in nicely, my daughter remarked that “adulting” isn't all it's cracked up to be. Indeed.
It can be fun, but most of the time it's face first in the dirt, inching your way to comfort.
But easy? No. Again, if you apply enough effort in just the right spots, things will work out.
I am reminded that we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities. I'll let that sink in.
Some things do come easy to some people – scheduling, finances, paperwork, household repairs, etc. Others shun all of these. They are all necessary evils.
And we don't get good at something without years of practise and dedication.
Warren Buffett once said that there seems to be “some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”
I happen to be decent at both writing and public speaking – admittedly two of the most difficult things. But I wasn't born that way. Yes, I may have had the “gift of gab” at an early age, but that was more clowning around to gain attention that anything else.
Writing did come naturally, but it took years of getting rid of bad habits, and honing the right skills. It's easy to get lazy, not only in writing, but anything.
I always tell people who struggle to get those words on a page not to force it. Take a breath, and just let it pour out of you, from your heart. Don't worry about the syntax, grammar and spelling – get those thoughts down and go back to fine tune it later.
Dont think you have to be perfect – no one is, not me, your teacher, your boss, no one.
A lot of us appreciate the effort and the heart-felt sentiments. They mean more than proper sentence structure, let me tell you.
Being a Virgo, and a leftie, my brain has to work overtime. We September babies tend to be creative, picky, and yes, perfectionists.
I have always enjoyed visual arts – drawing, photography and building model kits. Perhaps I've charged my brain cells with these optic stimuli.
So while these things are fairly easy and straightforward for me, there's a ton of things that aren't.
I'm logical and pragmatic, and often forget to let the softer side out for a stroll. Sure, I laugh, chuckle, and poke fun at things, but it's a thin veil.
Virgos can be a brooding, self-centred lot and I am guilty of sitting quietly, pouting, stressing, wrestling with myself.
Despite outlets for people's feelings on social media, every journey is unique. Our footsteps are unlike anyone else's and so those prints we leave behind fade in a manner that's special to us.
For those facing mortality, our thought process is a bit different.
One day there will be but a shadow where my body once rested on the sofa. The sound of my footsteps will be but an echo.
And yet, Terry Pratchett, in “Reaper Man,” noted that “no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone's life is only the core of their actual existence.”
Easy, hard, it makes no difference in the end.
Dust still settles on the trophy shelf and we are reduced to boxes of odds and sods.
It's not always easy to put one foot in front of another to make progress. But it's much harder letting go.