QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Playing Your Hand
(This "Question of the Week' is written by Walter Morris, a 12th Grade student in my Movies As Literature class.)

Every day people die knowing full well that they will never be rich, or famous, or happy. It is a sad fact, yes, but a fact none the less, and a fact that one should not disregard. For it is our success that defines us as human beings, no? It’s kind of a cruel game. We are given this gift, this wonderful and terrible gift, and we are expected to make the most out of it in some way or another. And if not, then we have failed. Sometimes I catch my mind wandering about the people who make the most menial things I use. For example, buttons. All they do is hold clothes together, and sometimes not even very well. There are alternatives to buttons, surely. And even some that may be more effective and advantageous. So what about the person who makes these buttons? What is their impact on the world? - to hold sweaters together. And I will never know the name of the person who made the buttons on my sweater, and he or she shall never know me. And we will continue on in our lives to think very little about each other, and then we will die. Se la vie.

It is important to ask oneself, periodically, whether it is possible to ‘fail’ at life - to not achieve success. Given the sheer number of people the Earth moves in and out each day, I’m sure there has to be at least one who never accomplished their goals. At least one who reached for the stars, but never touched them. And of course there is the other end of the spectrum. People like Martin Luther King Jr., and Albert Einstein, and Mozart and Bach and Voltaire and Mahatma Gandhi. They are more famous and wealthy than this poor button-maker, but are they just as integral a part in the advancement of civilization? Surely someone made MLK Jr.’s buttons. But when one does not amount to much in contrast with these truly great people, does this define failure? Does this mean that all the hard work and effort John Doe put into school, and work, and relationships, and friends, has it all been in vain? Or is failure merely a human invention designed to motivate the human race to progress and thrive out of fear? Is success possible? Is failure? And most importantly, can one win a game that one never had a choice to play?

We are thrust into this world with very little. Feeble and young, we rely on our parents to help us survive. And slowly but surely, we learn. We learn about colors and shapes, and colors and shapes turns into letters, and then reading, followed by simple math, and more complex math, and social studies and geography, and religion. All the while establishing a foundation for ourselves in the way of a moral compass, and a conscience, and our personality. But the question remains: is one human more valuable than the next? We try to tell ourselves over and over that all humans are equal and valuable in their own rights, but we don’t buy it. Faced with a burning building, a bum and a lawyer trapped inside, it is obvious which one you would choose. And faced with a life of humble hard work only to earn barely enough to pay the bills, and a life of fame and fortune and glamour, the answer is obvious as well. But I remain determined yet to forge on through the incandescent flames of opportunity, naive and bullheaded. For the only constant in life is that one must play the hand he is dealt.

Classmates, in no less than 5 sentences explain to me what defines your personal success, how you plan to achieve it, and how you would feel if you fell short."