I was thinking about snails today and how they have no business surviving in this world. Think about it.
They are slow and stick out. If they want to eat, they have to move to another place but how long will it take them to get to that place? What obstacles will be in their way? What dangers?
I don’t have any numbers because I’m not looking this shit up but how many snails survive for longer than a year when they live in the city? Or how many survive trying to cross the sidewalk?
It can’t be many!
But when you think about it, we are all snails.
When we start we are excited about things because I assume snails are born where there is food readily available to them. But at some point, we have to make a move.
Some of us don’t make any moves. We simply hope that more leaves will grow where we’re at.
Some of us will go looking elsewhere on the plant for some food.
But then some of us see a better opportunity that is on the other side of the sidewalk. There is more shade, more food, and more of everything else that we want.
The problem is that we have to cross that sidewalk. We might get stepped on. A bike might run us over. A mob of killer ants might overtake us.
Literally there is a better chance of something going wrong than there is something going right.
To make matters worse, we can see the goal that we want to reach, but we can’t move faster. We can only move at the pace we are moving. We can slow down, but why would we do that? That keeps us in the path of danger!
The snails that stayed back at us and don’t get it. Why risk it? Why not wait for something to arrive?
We can’t explain it to them. We don’t even know ourselves really why we are doing this. Sure we can say more food (money), a better plan (awesome lifestyle), or something else, but that doesn’t explain why take the risk.
The snail doesn’t understand why it needs to cross the sidewalk. It’s just in its nature.
Just like it is in your nature to build this thing you’re building.
I’m proud of you snail.
I know you’ll get across the sidewalk eventually. Just make sure you save some leaves for me when I get there.