What is this blog, exactly? What does it stand for? And what in Cloud Cuckoo Land does 'Carpe Diem' mean?
Well, let me tell you.
A couple summers ago I was on a bike trip with the local YFC group, and one evening as I was bored and waiting for dinner to be finished, I joined a group of young adults underneath a oak tree and listened to them talk. One in particular, whom we shall dub Master Marvel, was answering questions about superheroes and action movies. I'm a huge movie buff, so I asked him what his favorite film was (that's a way to learn a lot about people, kids, ask them what their favorite movie is). Without hesitation, he replied "Dead Poets Society". I had seen the film cover in my library a couple times, and had brushed it off as some sort of gothic gang film, but then again, it had a picture of a middle-aged man being carried on the shoulders of smiling boys.
So I checked it out. Wow.
The story focuses on a class of teenage boys in a 1959 Vermont preparatory school known for it's four pillars, 'Tradition. Honor. Discipline. Excellence.'. Each boy has had these virtues drilled into their heads since they could speak. Especially 'discipline'. Each boy's parents have their entire lives planned, from first grade to middle-age, and these boys seem to have no choice but to go along with them, uncomplaining and complacent.
Then Mr. Keating comes along.
To Mr. Keating, English is everything. English is the breath of the soul of man, the way he expresses himself, the way he exists, the way he changes the world.
"Carpe diem. Seize the day! Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Why does the writer use these lines?"
"Because he's in a hurry."
"No. DING! Thanks for trying anyway. Because we are food for worms, lads. 'cause, believe it or not, each and everyone of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die.... Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
Make your lives extraordinary. But how do we do that?
Back to the bike trip. This is an annual thing, every first week of August. Every day, six days, biking. Uphill and down, over flats and around treacherous curves, avoiding potholes and cars, calling out roadkill and broken glass for your teammates. Cooking oatmeal for breakfast in cold fog, mixing dinner while tired from the road and covered in sweat. No computers, no video games, no iPods.
But if that were everything, I wouldn't go back every year.
Beyond every hill, through every downpour, is a lesson. A lesson that all comes back to the main question: "Where are you going?"
The first part of moving is that you need to figure out where you are. Is your life stagnant? What corner of the closet needs to get cleaned out? Where is your hope?
The second part is to spy your goal. Take a moment and consider that. What is your goal? I don't mean what college you're going to, or what kind of car you're going to buy. Review the last few questions, now look at your goal, and ask yourself, 'Is it worth it?'.
Do not take this question lightly.
The third part is to choose your companions. Some will volunteer, others will just happen to be there, others you will have to find yourself. But you need to know that your companions have got your back. That's the bike trip. Your team takes care of you. You take care of each other.
And at the end of the trip, you'll see that you have lived. You have challenged yourself to go beyond your comfort zone, and you did it.
It's a tough world out there, a tough road to ride. And there will be downpours, there will be roadkill, there will be broken gears, there will be fatigue and sometimes dehydration that can throw you out for the entire day. But you need to keep going. There is no checking out. This is your life. You have the opportunity to make it awesome, if not for yourself, for those around you, and that makes you awesome yourself.
But we all need some encouragement and inspiration from time to time.
That's what this blog is all about.
Seize the day.
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