“The worst of all fears is the fear of living.”
T.R. is one of my favorite Presidents, and this quote is perhaps the reason why. In a nutshell, he distills the essence of being present in the moment. Far too many people live in fear. They just exist, going through the motions, letting time pass them by. Instead, you must truly decide to go for life with a deep gusto. I embraced this philosophy by the time I went to Auburn and there, I let nothing pass by. If I wanted to try, I did it. I didn’t win every time….I wasn’t chosen for the cheerleading team, I didn’t make The Auburn Singers, I wasn’t selected as a Plainsman, and I didn’t make the baseball team….but I went after all of them with gusto. I did get into The Auburn University Choir, was chosen to be a brother in FarmHouse, was the lead official for Auburn Intramurals, and was a highly successful opening MC speaker for the Auburn Free Movie (trust me…nothing prepares you for standing in front of a group of college students as a professor than the heckling experience of the Free Movie). Many other opportunities came up and were seized, some of them life changing like a last-minute decision to head to Daytona Beach for a thing Campus Crusade for Christ did call “Operation Sunshine.” Girls were dated (most of them far above my level), honors were achieved and experiences were had.
Today, I still live by that ethos…trying hard for things I wish to do. Once, when a student asked me how I had time to write my books, record my CDs, pastor a church, spend time with my children, write as a blogger, be a professor…..and so forth, I just said “I make the time.”
Life is for the living and TR understood that better than most. His quote above, found in his own autobiography, was used again by himself during his eulogy for his son Quentin who was killed during World War I. There, TR said, “Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.”
As we head into the spring of 2015, I pray that you are living your life with zest, with gusto, fully.