No more life in the cheap seats

The literary theorist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin saw life as a drama. In that drama, we're the hero of our own stories. Or at least, we want to be.

We want to be on the stage of life, not in the cheap seats watching from above. We want to be a protagonist, not someone to whom life just happens. Someone who acts, decides, and takes responsibility for what we choose to do—or not do.

And yet, all too often, we wait. We wait because sitting in the cheap seats is easier. Safer. There isn’t the stress of having to figure out who we are or what we want. There isn’t the uncertainty of figuring out how we will get there.

We don't have to face the possibility of failure.

Besides, it’s so much easier to take pot shots at the people who do make it out onstage, who have taken the risk of exposing themselves to failure or ridicule.

And quite frankly, we have a lot of company in the cheap seats.

So we can spend out lives waiting for life to point to us to get onstage, for the crowds to part and allow us to take our place. We want a clear call that takes away the uncertainty.

But life is already calling us. It always has. So, what’s stopping me? What’s stopping you?