Smashing Down the Barriers to Greatness

      The young man opens the microwave door and, once again, spills the hot drink, barely avoiding scalding himself.  He realizes that, far too often, he has accepted incidents such as this as a normal part of daily life. They have left him stuck in first gear and too readily accepting the derision and mockery of those who either don’t understand his life or consider themselves exempt from human failure.

      Those not condemned to suffer with the disorder with the relatively benign name of essential tremor have little real comprehension of the roadblocks this man and his fellow travelers face every day along this rocky road.

      Often, the commuters forced to negotiate the twists and turns of this unfulfilled world find it impossible to even toast the few victories in their lives because the spilled toasts often dash any hope of normalcy. 

      In one sense, they rejoice that cursive letter writing now has a much smaller role in the modern world because, without computer technology and word processing, even the simple task of signing one’s signature with a pen or pencil, can turn their efforts into indecipherable scribbles. 

      The roadblock rears its ugly head again when the young man attempts to publicly express his points of view on important issues. Useless quaking and sometimes incomprehensible utterances result.  His attempt to cope with this often second place existence has driven him smack into another mass of blockades. 

     Determined to work past the limitations that have plagued him most of his life, he has charged through many of the barriers. The battle led him into an extremely productive first career that brought him a great deal more satisfaction, shots at fame and adventure than he would have attained had his situation not forced him to take the detours. 

      If not forced to smash through the obstacles he probably would not have discovered the many adventures awaiting him in his post-retirement avocation of fiction writing. This turn in his life’s journey also led him to find his muse amid the natural beauty of the Delmarva Peninsula. 

      It may not have produced the monetary rewards he had envisioned when entering this part of his journey, but doors still could open and remain part of his positive challenge for the future. The detours also have propelled him into many social leadership positions whose doors he believed the tremors had closed to him. 

      The struggle also has brought more sympathy for those who face other barricades in their lives.  He has come to believe more firmly that charity should stem more from one’s internal sense of decency and obligation rather than from dispersing largesse aimed at only maintaining one’s social standing. 

      This increased empathy for others also has caused him to become more laser focused on a much greater need for understanding and inclusion in a world of greater kindness. Globally, this means the need to more carefully consider the motivations behind the viewpoints of others and what causes them to react to the world the way they do. 

      Our hero also has begun to explore more the hypocrisy of supposedly caring so much for defining the beginning of human existence but continuing to support policies which shorten that  existence in later life, especially for those which society chooses to marginalize. 

      The true betterment of society, he also has come to realize, probably should come more from a free and open discussion of issues and beliefs than from social media shouting and narrow minded spouting of viewpoints and violent reactions to the opinions of others. Maybe we should be understanding far more and shouting far less. 

      He has come to agree more and more that open discussion and working towards common goals accomplishes far more than the construction of cages aimed at locking away viewpoints not mirroring exactly our own. This, by no means, argues for non-questioning conformity, but more for searching below the surface for portions of everyone’s life goals that can be fused to build an understanding that can benefit all. 

      His struggles also have taught him that the human race can find a way to accomplish this with the guiding hands of all organizations and individuals of good will–whether based on religious or non-religious foundations. Every person’s personal tenets of existence, no matter whether they stem from an individual or collective belief system, can provide keys through which each of us unlocks the common human decency that, of late, has become buried deeper and deeper in our collective consciousness. 

       Hopefully, leaders of all belief systems will come to work more closely toward a positive and hopeful society where all seek open acceptance of differences, as well as likenesses, in order to truly advance all humankind. 

        “The tearing down of all these blockades and reaching for a more positive meaning in life,” he said recently, “should motivate us to put maximum effort into seeking a new and interesting world of satisfaction and accomplishment for all who inhabit the earth, no matter what the level of their abilities. This means that we can all contribute to a better world in our own way, even if we overcome each of our personal obstacles by traveling along different highways.” 

      “None of this naively pretends that real evil and true evildoers do not exist in the world,” he added,  “but we should all strive for a new order where humankind advances with evil and evildoers cast into true irrelevance.” 

       The fight against living the life of an also ran have not taken our hero’s eyes off the ultimate goal of reaching out for himself and others who suffer from the plagues that keep too many stuck in second gear. He continues to believe that the wonders of science and technology will produce the ultimate destruction of the many blockades, not just through sophisticated coping mechanisms but from lasting cures that will produce a better world. 

      “If the farthest science and technology advance in the lifetime of every human being is to  create a society built on the small spot of greatness each of them has contributed to this world, then each of us will have reached the ultimate goal of our existence when the curtain closes on our final performance,” he concluded.