the mystery of inaction

As I grow older (and therefore wiser), one thing becomes a bigger and bigger mystery for me: why do so many people seem content to sit on their asses and never exert even a tiny handful of calories toward the effort of actually Finding Their Bliss?

It's one thing to encounter obstacles and perhaps even be stymied by them, but more common is the situation where someone claims to want something—some dream or fantasy of a happy life—and then never does anything to help make that dream a reality.

I've had variations of this same conversation with several friends in recent months: talking to pals who posssess some great talent or ability and claim to have some golden dream they intend to pursue, but who—when it comes right down to it—will never do a damned thing.

I find this tragic and sad. Given the rewards versus the cost, what the hell is so daunting about putting your comfort on the line once or twice a year? What's so paralyzingly scary about trying?

Screenwriting as a career is slightly less farfetched than "professional lottery winner," yet it becomes infinitely more farfetched when you refuse even to commit yourself to a serious effort at success. Similarly, it's a lot harder to be a successful photographer or architect or pearl diver or asteroid farmer or whatever if you just sit at home and piss and moan about how much you want that dream and how hard it is to make that dream come true and how many obstacles exist to make that dream such a difficult proposition.

Life is a rock, sweeheart: it's hard and it's rough. It's supposed to be, as if it was anything less it would hardly be worth living in the first damned place.

Increasingly, I find I have little patience for or interest in people I identify as "all talk and no action." There are those who help push the game forward, and then there is that other 90% of the population who'd rather just sit in the stands and watch, and maybe cheer, and possibly criticize and judge despite having never once had the cajones to gear up and enter the game for even a single snap, a single pitch, a single trip down the court.

I've got stuff I intend to do in this life. I'll either make it happen or I will die in the honest effort.

Those who remain content to do nothing... to dream nothing, to dare nothing, to want nothing... confound and confuse me.
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