Hard Roads – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

How are life’s best lessons forged?

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

"Ad astra per aspera" (through hardship to the stars). That phrase has marked many moments in my life, especially the hardest and most uncertain ones, when I thought there was no way out. How do obstacles end up being the only way forward? What is it about challenges that makes us better people? Why do hard trials exist? These questions have helped me find more meaning in every adversity I’ve faced. The one I’ve most wanted to answer, though, is this: where does adversity come from? The temper of the human spirit is forged in the greatest challenges.

Thinking about brutal challenges makes me picture everyone who, for one reason or another, has had to leave daily life behind and throw themselves into the fight. I imagine someone whose physical safety was never threatened until recently, who now faces one stark challenge: live to fight, or die. What must a change of that magnitude be like? How do we cope with that kind of change overnight? Are we ready? I have no doubt about our ability to turn our lives around and dive in without thinking, to do things we never did before, to make radical changes when the stakes are highest. We all have that capacity.

Exposure. Something that is in our hands is exposing ourselves, in some way, to making real changes in our lives. Of course we can change. Of course we can improve. The challenge is finding goals demanding enough to bring about the turns we want. Someone forced to go to war to defend themselves doesn’t get to choose. Those of us outside those circumstances who want to make radical changes certainly can. The purpose of someone defending against an invasion is as powerful and demanding as the purpose of someone seeking a new direction in life. The difference lies in the necessity of the first and the will of the second.

It has been hard these days to think about the adversity doctors, nurses, soldiers, priests, parents and so many others have had to endure, and I keep asking why life has put them through such hardship. I’m sure that after this torment and devastation, every kind of inner strength will emerge, above all strength of spirit, the greatest of them all. A wealth of ideas on how to overcome all kinds of obstacles will follow. People forged in the fiercest storms will come out of this, leaders we can admire for their courage and dedication.

I pray for peace in the world, and I pray that all this ends soon. I pray for everyone whom power and terror have filled with every kind of negative emotion. All I know is that after all this, after the tortuous road so many are walking, a new life will come. A new human being is taking shape, and soon all this evil will end. The hard road won’t always be the one we want, yet life challenges us every day, so I can only conclude it ends up being the best road. I’ve walked some very hard roads in my life, and they don’t begin to compare with what so many are living through right now in a war. All I know is that the best road through life is the one full of obstacles, roads without bridges, full of snakes and crocodiles, where the stars are waiting for us at the end.

Warm regards,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. I’m still traveling, so my VELA has been limited to my personal reading. This week I’ve been reading The Obstacle Is the Way.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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