One noble, virtuous, human thing

#Trust30 Prompt:Do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take a moment, step back from your concerns, and focus on one thing: You have one life to achieve everything you’ve ever wanted. Sounds simple, but when you really focus on it, let it seep into your consciousness, you realize you only have about 100 years to get every single thing you’ve ever wanted to do. No second chances. This is your only shot. Suddenly, this means you should have started yesterday. No more waiting for permission or resources to start. Today is the day you make the rest of your life happen. Write down one thing you’ve always wanted to do and how you will achieve that goal. Don’t be afraid to be very specific in how you’ll achieve it: once you start achieving, your goals will get bigger and your capability to meet them will grow.

Another ‘one thing you always wanted to do’ question, eh? I wonder do we keep getting these questions because no one ever does what they want to do, or because we all have so many things we get to do we are afraid we will miss one of them? I may be addled–and I probably am–but it seems we live in a world where people indulge themselves for themselves all the time. Is extreme altruism the real problem here? My guess is there is an epidemic of narcissism, and the creative question would more properly be one about the self-discipline needed to do not what would be really self-indulgently cool, but what would be the most noble, virtuous, or just plain human.

I don’t mean to judge anyone else. This is self-talk that wants to postpone the self-soothing.

So the thing I have always wanted to do is lead an overseas tour of Reformation sites. I am willing to go to AIDS stations in Zimbabwe, help with relief at a disaster site, or remodel homes in the urban core (though I should not be trusted with a hammer or saw). But since I am asked what I have always wanted to do, my answer is lead the tour. Noble, virtuous, or human? Absolutely. I am passionate to share the true story of the reformers because it is a narrative that will so inform and inspire those of us who have lost our way on a truly unmoored and drifting planet.

My plan: Contact a tour service, establish a cost, publish the info, and invite others to join me. Will you?