You Aren’t Free To Abandon The Work
Now that we’re gearing up for another presidential election in 2020, with debate stages ready to be set and candidates warring with each other toward the finish line, I’m reminded of the uphill struggle that is the political world. As long as there are humans on earth, politics will be filled with never ending fights — one side of the aisle going at the other, or foreign allies and foes that can’t be pleased or aim to do harm.
I’m reminded of Rand Paul’s countless speeches on the Senate floor, reminding us of government waste, overreach, and broken promises. I think of Paul’s filibuster, the one where he forgot to wear tennis shoes for his long night of standing and talking.
When you look at these events as an outside observer, and think of the famous filibusters and political battles from your side of the aisle if you aren’t a Rand Paul fan, it’s hard not to be disheartened. It’s hard not to feel like political battles over policies leave the battlers with a situation where they’re solely yelling at the abyss. I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to one grassroots political effort, and I can attest that even after small wins, the battles rage on.
What are we left to do? These concerns remind us of the existential dilemmas of Ecclesiastes or the existentialists of France. Is it all truly in vain? Are we just working toward the abyss? Is all really vanity?
That’s too difficult a question for anyone to answer with certainty, and you might have already taken a side on the options of that question long ago. There likely isn’t an official answer, just conclusions decided so that we can move forward in life. But what we all do know — regardless of the longer-term question of where our efforts and those from the people that we champion go — we all know that we admire the hero. We go to the box office for the hero story. We read books and religious texts about the hero story. We play video games and narrate our own lives in the model of the hero story. What’s in common with each hero is that they don’t throw in the towel.
The hero doesn’t give up when things are tough or look bleak. The hero isn’t like the pro athlete who stops giving the game his all once he gets a big payday. The hero isn’t like the older person who stops growing because ‘they’ve lived long enough already.’ The hero soldiers on, fights another day, whether or not their effort is in vain or worthwhile. That’s why they’re heroic — they do the hard thing despite the effort involved. And we never know, we can’t ever quantify the impact that a hero has on other people or society.
In some religious traditions, there is a moral and ethical obligation to act as the hero. As this quote says, which I’ve heard be attributed to Rabbi Tarfon, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
