A Prayer for the Epiphany

It is not a testament to our lives to say that we have succeeded, because life (despite the current and loud admonition to the contrary) is not a business in which there are winners and losers. Life  is about the trying, business is about the succeeding.

The only sure way to fail is to avoid the risk by never trying.  But success is incumbent upon our own efforts not in a vacuum, but in an atmosphere in which multiple contributions to success, some small and unnamable hold up the attempt and give it a head start.  Failure after effort is dismissed as a manifestation of personal faults, not a reflection on the lack of a suitable atmosphere.  This personal attachment to failure and success diminishes the value of the effort itself, scaring people away for fear of failure.  This imposition of economic measurement on life is one of our greatest failings and here laid bare for the world to witness.

Many shudder at the thought of on their death bed, sitting in self-judgement reviewing their accounts in some giant ledger.  We live our days in this under the assumption that this accounting (or reckoning) will occur, but for some reason, in the end we regret that our lives are not much more than a compilation of our days.  Living each day makes for living a meaningful life.