Obstacles

 

I'm reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest right now. Not a book for everyone, I don't think. It has so much depth and sadness and true soul-bearing reality, I actually have to take breaks from reading it or I get too moody and thoughtful. VERY good book. Just warning you, it will make you think.

I will most likely share a lot of quotes from this book at one point or another. The quote above is NOT from this book, but the one below is... and I think the both share a similar thought:

You are what you love. No?
You are, completely and only, what you would die for
without, as you say, the thinking twice.

-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

The obstacles in our lives are unique to us -- they block our ability to gain whatever it is that we most want or need, be it a person, a thing or an ideal. Whatever it is that we want or need - that thing is important to us, so important that we are willing to be uncomfortable, to struggle to overcome that obstacle.
We learn what is most important to us through learning what we are willing to struggle for -- what we are willing to go out of our way to make happen, to work hard for, to make an effort for. A thing is not an obstacle for us unless it is blocking something we want or need to have.

This leads me to two thoughts:

1. That without obstacles, we cannot really understand what we value most. Therefore obstacles, though frustrating, are a necessary evil.

2. That since the things that are most important to me are not always the things most important to other people, it makes sense that the things that are obstacles to me, the things I struggle with, might not seem like such a big deal to other people... and vice versa.

What are the obstacles in your life, in your work, in your parenting that you are struggling to overcome? What does this say about what is most important to you?