Life is my favorite game.

Posted: October 19th, 2010 Category: christian

AUTUMN is clearly my favorite season, despite the impending threats of; winter, food and energy costs, BCS inequities, global warming consequences, Wall St. hunkering, holiday commercialism and impossible airline travel options (on skimpy, cramped seats).

Why then … well because of the essence of wood smoke, the glow of a fireplace, nature’s majestic colors, frost retarded grass growth, pancake breakfasts, falling leaves, crisp air, football and hot cocoa. You see everything is a matter of perspective. Last autumn I lost my closest family member and my beloved four year old dog to tragic deaths. Setbacks of every magnitude are a part of the package for every living creature and physical death is the surest outcome we can expect. Sure it would be easy to be crippled by the tragedies of life or even to lock oneself off from all future emotional investments, thus avoiding further heartbreaks. But at what cost? Relationships are the only real purpose to this existence. True pleasure comes only from sharing, loving, giving and receiving, not from security and abstention. From my vantage point, no one has ever said it better than Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem In Memoriam:

“I hold it true, whate’er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.”

We can not lose what we’ve never had, the excruciating pain of loss comes only from the intimate knowledge of true pleasure. I’m not suggesting that anyone take pleasure in their losses, rather that we fully appreciate the preceding gift of life, however long or short it may be. I learned one extremely valuable lesson last autumn, the only experience that I could not possibly survive would be separation from God, which is the final definition of death. With that single relationship intact and secure, all else is possible and with eternal life, nothing of true value can be lost forever. So because of history, autumn remains my favorite season and life is my favorite game.

JC CALKINS with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE