Something

It’s not necessarily the same thing, but “we all have something.”

Years ago, when writing a book, I came across a news headline about a scientist posted in the North Pole or was it the South Pole, who got cancer.  Unable to get home promptly for treatment, she had to treat herself with whatever supplies and technology she had at hand.  But when finally flighted back to civilization she said, “we’ve all got something, mine happens to be cancer.”

Like that scientist mine might be cancer or another sickness.  Yours might be a battle against a past that still haunts you.  Maybe your something is financial struggle.  Or your fight could be with a difficult relationship that you can’t sever nor reconcile.

But one thing is certain, “we all have something.”  It’s universal.

Then again, “there’s always something.”  We’re never free from some needling something that keeps us “fighting the good fight.”  The Biblical Apostle Paul, had a figurative thorn in his side, literally needling him to stay appreciative.

Why do I always think of Robin Williams’ line in Mrs. Doubtfire, “I am job,” when I write the biblical name, Job? But back to the subject at hand, there is the Old Testament figure, Job who had a trifecta of trouble, testing his loyalty to the God who gave him everything, only to have it all taken away by Satan.

We homeowners often lament that the honey-do, DIY jobs around the house, never end; whining regularly that “there’s always something.”  And what Monday morning doesn’t start out with hope that this time it’ll not be as usual, punctuating the end of the day and the beginning of the week with, “there’s always something.”

Even if you’re “living the dream,” make no mistake, there is always some hindrance, tension, or problem to be overcome.  I think of the one element required in a good plot, whether in a book or film, which is tension.  Something to get out from under.

And don’t you know that’s the thing that drives us forward and drives us crazy at the same time.  I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I have discerned the advent of that element of plot in a movie, much to our dismay, “well, there has to be tension or there would be no movie, eh!”  We’d usually prefer that it skip the cliched problem and move on to the solution.

The underdog always thinks, “if I could just get to be ‘top-dog’ I’d be fulfilled or content, or happy.”  I think it was Rockefeller (John D.) who answered the question put to him, “how much money does it take to make a man happy?  One more dollar.”

“Fighting the good fight,” a line taken from the Apostle Paul’s letter to his protégé, Timothy, is a precept which encourages us all to become better at our humanity.  It’s meant to give us the strength to battle whatever “something” that stands between us and completion of our purpose in life.  And “there’s always something.”

“Gonna try with a little help from my friends…”  That was how the Beatles described our need for some help to deal with the “somethings” that hound us.

I know to the independent sort of folk, “help” is a “four-letter” word of the dirtiest kind.  But sooner or later we’re gonna need some help for something.

One of my favorite songs is, “Giant” by Calvin Harris.  Let me close this with a little something from that song.  Maybe it’ll help you with whatever something you have to deal with this week:

“I would be nothing without you holding me up…  Now I’m strong enough for both of us…  Climb up on my shoulders, tell me what you see…  We’ll be breaking boulders underneath our feet…”

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