Being Towards Destiny

"Whatever course you have chosen for yourself, it will not be a chore but an adventure if you bring to it a sense of the glory of striving, if your sights are set far above the merely secure and mediocre" (David Sarnoff). We need to bring the glory of striving to all we do, even to play. Living this way entails taking risks, which requires trust. This trust is not necessarily proven by whether or not we succeed or fail because failure, too, is a part of living. Setting my "sights far above the merely secure and mediocre" also requires me to live without preconceptions. Not having preconceptions is different from not having aspirations and desires for proximate ends. It means being open to the unexpected, to being surprised.

While there is an inherent glory to human endeavor, our striving needs an object, an end towards which it is all directed because no matter what we achieve in this life it falls short of what we really want, which is the life that is truly life. Otherwise, all our busyness only serves to distract our attention from what really matters. As Don Giussani teaches us, we must use everything as means to accomplish the end we desire, to arrive at destiny, which is nothing other than fully realizing the purpose for which we exist. So, while there is the glory of striving, there is also the glory for which we strive and the two, while distinct, are inextricably linked. The glory for which I strive is striven for in no other way than how I live each day of my life, which means letting each moment be for me truly an experience, not just so many random things that happen to me. It is precisely through our daily activities that Christ comes meet us, to make the events of our days encounters with Him, the One who doesn't merely show us our destiny, but who is our destiny, our beginning and our end. He who is Alpha and Omega.

Meum cum sim pulvis et cinis