Home Meets Homework
Halloween, like everything else in 2020, is different this year. That sucks. Not that it\u2019s on the list of most meaningful holidays but certainly it\u2019s near the top of the list of fun ones, and we all could use a little more fun right now.
The funnest part of Halloween is, of course, permission to dress up in costumes and spend a few hours indulging the fantasy that you are someone else. When you\u2019re a child I think it\u2019s such a wonderful thing to dream of becoming someone or being the superhero or the pirate or the prince or princess. There\u2019s something aspirational about a lot of halloween costumes.
Not so much for adults though. We don\u2019t play dress up as often as kids and even when we do it\u2019s not so aspirational. Unlike our kids we\u2019re all caught up in the burdens and responsibilities of surviving right now, which makes us no fun at all. And on top of that, dreaming about being something or someone else at our age can be kinda depressing. We may not want to be reminded of the person we were supposed to be but aren\u2019t, or the thing we were \u201cborn to do\u201d but aren\u2019t doing.
\u201cWell, thanks Dean. That took a sad turn.\u201d
No, no, I didn\u2019t mean for it to. You see, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever liked the idea of being \u201cborn to do a thing.\u201d I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s fair to say that this current occupation or that occupation or this situation or that situation is the thing you were born to do it. Especially since life is so fickle and changeable and you never know how long a season of life, be it good or bad, is going to last.
And I also think there\u2019s danger in over identifying or connecting your worth or identity to a particular outward circumstance. What if something happens that renders you unable to continue in the profession you were supposedly \u201cborn to do\u201d? Does that mean you are no longer you? Too many of us get too wrapped up in those kinds of stories.
So for me, I\u2019ve settled on the notion that what I was \u201cborn to do\u201d is live. And what that means is at any given moment in time I should try to find myself doing what makes me feel most alive. The kinds of things that when I\u2019m doing them I can honestly say \u201cwhen I do this thing I feel very much very me.\u201d
I don\u2019t know if I was \u201cborn\u201c to design houses, or be on the radio, or be an artist or an armchair philosopher or a husband, or a father or grandfather or raise chickens or a maker of things \u2026 but I can tell you this \u2026 right now when I do those things I feel very much me.
So while I don\u2019t embrace the idea that any one of us was necessarily \u201cborn to do\u201d one particular thing, I do believe that we were all born to be alive and to be is fully alive as we can possibly be.
So here\u2019s a Halloween resolution for 2020: In the time of Covid or at any other time, don\u2019t let yourself be haunted by any story of what your life is supposed to look like \u2026 especially your own story. Life is too big and too beautiful for just one costume. And opportunities to be you are hiding at every turn.
So stop haunting your own life. You\u2019re not a ghost yet. So be alive today.
You be you. Do what makes you feel most you.
And you know what?
No matter how your story has turned out so far, you can still build yourself a beautiful life.