What is Struggle?
‘Struggle’ is a beautiful word, as I am beginning to learn. Like love, it is all pervasive, touches every life, leaves indelible marks and transforms into life lessons.
Somewhere in the history of man, the word gained a wretched reputation. Struggling became a close relation of failure. It became a modifier of sorts, denoting what someone did not accomplish in tangible terms. A struggling actress. A struggling artist. A struggling sportsman. A struggling entrepreneur. The word hung over their resume silently, constantly reminding them of the goals unattained and casting shadows on their self-worth.
Somewhere in the trajectory of life, as we clawed our way up, ‘struggle’ became a dirty word and remained so unless and until we reached the top. Those who made it, came to be labelled ‘successful’. Those who didn’t, languished forever in the wasted lands.
How misplaced our understanding of the word ‘struggle’ has been! That which should reflect relentless effort became an index of incompetence and hopelessness. That which must be applauded came to be derided. That for which one must take pride turned into a cause of embarrassment. Those who struggle alone will know what the sand and gravel feel like.
Struggle is a winsome word, as I am learning now. Struggle is a great leveller, like sorrow, and like all other abstracts that make us equal sons and daughters of God.
Who in this world doesn’t struggle, after all? Rich or poor, for this or that, for little or more, for success or survival — we are in it in varying measures. No one is spared from this life’s free-for-all.
In our frequent falls, in our persistent crawls there is a beauty of the determined mind. There is a power that eggs us on. There is a spirit within that craves to be alive despite it all. The spirit knows no success or failure. It merely exists, for its own sake. Its battles don’t have closures.
There are no definite successes nor failures in life. All there is, is this trek through the peaks and valleys. The climbs and descents. This relentless struggle to go on. To be alive.
All else is fiction. Fallacies of a conceited mind.
Ask yourself.