THAT PROMISING DUD

October 22nd, 2018

Anyone who has seen a firework show has probably been able to pick out one of the duds. 

One of those wiggling dots of light goes up and simply disappears.  No explosion, no burst of light.  Someone probably primed that firework, someone made it, someone integrated it’s launch into the rest of the sequence, and when finally it shoots up.  Nothing happens.

But we would be well served to expect this.

We do what we can, we design, we prepare, we build, and in the end our effort sails up into darkness and. . . nothing happens.

Sometimes that happens.  Sometimes its helpful to figure out what happened.  Other times its impossible to figure out what went wrong, and it’s better to refocus on the present and move forward.

Imagine what a terrible firework show it would be if the first rocket that went up was a dud, and because that first attempt didn’t go as planned, the show ends.  Right then and there.  No, these firework shows are equipped with hundreds if not thousands of rockets, all rigged with care, with the full knowledge that some of them just won’t work.   

Our efforts for any given project or in life in general might be better thought of like a firework show.  There will be duds, there might be a lot of them,

but if anything,

they only set a darker stage for a brighter bang when the next thing works.