Life in “Analogy”

 My brother Chuck has an analogy of life that I would like to share with you, and in doing so, I am going to add to it. It won’t be word for word but as the Editor he’ll do his “Lou Grant” on me and correct me?

When we are born, we arrive with a very small ball in our hand. Let’s say its the size of a marble. This ball represents life, our immediate concerns, needs and responsibilities. As an infant and a small child we can hold the ball and play with it. It’s not heavy or burdensome. Remember, its life and at this stage its carefree and fun.

As we become teenagers, and as we grow so does the size of the ball. At this stage its a little heavier and larger, but we are still able to hold it in our hand.

As we become young adults, with the demands that life is beginning to press upon us the ball has grown to, say, the size of a beach ball. Now we must juggle it from hand to hand as it gets heavier and larger all the while from the choices we make. But, we cannot put the ball down. As the football players say, The ball is in “play”.

Soon the ball becomes large enough to roll while our road begins to incline in our journey through life. So we roll the ball. Before long we are pushing the ball and before we realize it, the ball is as large as we are and our journey begins to become an uphill one.  Still we push the ball and continue to push the ball through life until we reach a point where the ball is too big and the hill too steep to push anymore… So the “ball”  rolls back over us and we die. It’s the journey through life. We all are doing  this now even if we don’t think about it.

Now, here is my addition to Chuck’s analogy to all this.

If we are fortunate enough in life to find someone willing to share the struggle, the individuals become a pair and their balls become  one. As one ball, one may push while the other rests. When the top of the hill is reached one may hold the ball while the other one places a brace underneath it. Preventing life from rolling over either of them and making their journey in life a little easier.

In summary: Push, and rest when you need to. But remember your partner is pushing for you both. When we become selfish, inconsiderate, or distracted as I have done, we will have to push alone, unable to rest and life will surely roll over you.

David Gee