Imagine that you were flipping through a newspaper or magazine — or, more likely today, scrolling through Instagram — and you came across this ad:
It reads:
“MEN WANTED for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.”
-Ernest Shackleton, 4 Burlington St.
Man or woman, how would you react?
Would you think that the offer was crazy? Who would accept such a suicidal mission, right?
However, what if I told you that, rather than being an ad for a journey to Antarctica, it was actually an advertisement for your life?
Would you simply scroll past the ad? Would you choose to stay at home, live in comfort and ease?
Or would you click on the ad, explore and seek to learn more?
Would you dare venture into the unknown and see what kind of potential is out there waiting for you?
THE LIGHT AND THE DARK
Suppose that you are a prisoner living in a dark cave. In chains, you are forced to face towards a wall. On the wall, you see reflections of moving objects. These moving objects are your complete understanding of the world beyond you and the cave.
Just behind you, though, is another wall. Behind the wall, people move around in their daily lives. Behind those people is a fire. The combination of the fire and movement of people causes the reflections that you see on the wall.
In short, your total understanding of the world — the reflections that you see — is limited. It is distorted and incomplete. You can’t see the people moving. You don’t know that there’s a fire behind you.
What’s worse, you don’t know that there’s a whole world outside of the cave.
You live in a dark cave of ignorance. And this is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
In the allegory, a prisoner is freed and allowed to venture beyond the cave and into the light of day. Initially blinded, the prisoner eventually adjusts to the light and sees everything for the first time. The prisoner truly sees.
The prisoner then returns to the cave, hoping to liberate everyone else. Of course, after being exposed to the bright sunlight, the prisoner is now blinded in the cave’s darkness.
The fellow prisoners, shackled and unknowing, see that the prisoner who returns is blinded. They believe that blindness would be their fate if they ventured out, as well. Therefore, they would not go willingly into the light. You would have to free them by force.
The Sun’s rays — the light of knowledge and understanding — is within reach. Yet, they would prefer to stay as they are, shackled in the dark.
This is why ignorance is compelling. All that you know, and all that makes you comfortable, is simply too good to pass up.
You are safe. You are warm. Everything is easy.
Why fix something that isn’t broken?
After all, we spent two thousand years believing that the Sun revolved around the Earth, and placed free thinkers under house arrest for suggesting otherwise.
BE THE ARROW
In Pedagogical Sketchbook, Paul Klee talks about the trajectory of an arrow, and how it, like mankind, strives for a destination that it will never reach:
“The father of the arrow is the thought: how do I expand my reach? Over this river? This lake? That mountain? The contrast between man’s ideological capacity to move at random through material and metaphysical spaces and his physical limitations, is the origin of all human tragedy. It is this contrast between power and prostration that implies the duality of human existence. Half winged—half imprisoned, this is man!”
“How does the arrow overcome the hindering friction? Never quite to get where motion is interminate.
Revelation: that nothing that has a start can have infinity.
Consolation: a bit farther than customary!—than possible?
Be winged arrows, aiming at fulfillment and goal, even though you will tire without having reached the mark.”
-Paul Klee [emphasis added]
Even if one never reaches the mark, Klee implores the reader to be a winged arrow. To aim for something and accept the outcome.
EXPLORE THE EDGE
I have lived in the cave for too long. It’s taken me my whole life to realize how safely I have played.
Sure, I’ve taken chances. I’ve taken leaps of faith.
But there is room for more.
Beyond the trappings of the cave — be it a steady paycheck, instant gratification on social media or whatever your “reflection on the wall” is — there is more.
There is so much more.
Are you willing to explore beyond your comfort zone?
Can you stare into the abyss of uncertainty and continue to put one foot in front of the other?
What’s holding you back?
What’s holding me back? I’m afraid.
I’m afraid that I’ll stand up on stage, and I’ll look out into an empty room.
I’m afraid to speak my truth and have it get lost in the wind.
I’m afraid that I won’t serve or touch the lives that I hoped I would.
I’m afraid that no one cares.
I’m afraid that it doesn’t matter.
I’m afraid.
And that’s okay.
It’s okay to be afraid.
It’s okay to not know.
It’s okay to be confused.
It’s okay to be an arrow — whose life’s dream is to fly with a singular purpose — and fall short.
“Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world. And it’s breathtaking.”
-Carlo Rovelli, “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics”
Exploring the edge between comfort and discomfort — light and dark — means different things to different people.
The only thing that matters is the decision that you make:
Will you start that business?
Will you call that estranged family member?
Will you write that book?
When the advertisement of your life presents itself, what will you do?
Will you say ‘yes’?
Will you answer the call?
Will you insist on today being different from yesterday?
Will you remove the shackles that bind and step into the light?
Take my hand — we’ll leave the cave together.