We live in a streaming culture, but very few of us can curate that stream.
It flows towards us and we react.
I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a way to describe how each of us should become our own tide.
Ted Sorensen wrote the phrase “a high tide that raises all ships” for JFK.
And I know, from a creative standpoint, that its easy to find yourself waiting for your ship to come in…without treading the water around us.
But earlier this year I visited the Stannard Rock Lighthouse, billed as “the loneliest place on Earth,” because
it is the furthest lighthouse from land in the United States.
It finally clicked.
The lighthouse takes a beating from the water.
Moving water cleanses, and stagnant water infects, but we are…none of us…water.
Water beats rock. It beats it until it becomes sand.
Our job is not to be the water.
Our job is to take the beating and shine our light.
To keep our head down, but also keep it above water.
To stand up in resilient fortitude and become a haven for our light.
It isn’t easy.
Nothing worth doing ever is.
It’s getting to be that time.
The tide is rolling in.
Brace yourself and be ready.
When it gets really hard, use a pen before a sword.
A call to arm isn’t the same as a call to harm.