We face two choices in this life: trying or not trying.
I almost wrote, trying or giving up, except that not all ‘not trying’ is giving up. Sometimes it isn’t worth the risk, sometimes we don’t have the time or energy. So instead it’s about the choices.
There’s a scene in Batman Begins between Wayne (the man who is Batman) and Alfred, an older support-mentor figure. As a child, Wayne has an accident and is upset, and Alfred says to him something like, “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Then there’s a classic film moment later in the film, Wayne as adult has been doing the big plot stuff to fight the baddies, and something went wrong and he failed. Alfred comes alongside him to talk about it, and throws the same line back at him, helping Wayne to pick himself back up and continue fighting baddies.
Now, I don’t quite agree with this message. I think it’s wrong to project this meaning into the falling, or failing, or something not working out. It doesn’t have the purpose to teach us to pick ourselves up, to keep trying. Life isn’t a linear progression of lessons designed by God or a Hollywood script writer to get us towards some end goal. Instead, I think it’s a simple fact that we try things, sometimes they work, sometimes they do not. Sometimes this is because of something out of control: I went to a shop to try and buy myself some food and it was out of stock. Sometimes it’s within our control: I didn’t put enough effort in, or my ability wasn’t enough, or whatever. Usually, of course, it’s a mixture of the two.
When something hasn’t worked out, or if we are thinking about some future possibility, we are faced with the option of trying or not trying.
I was thinking of it this morning with a few things in mind. I spoke to a doctor about a chronic health condition I have, which may change or I may have for the rest of my life. I was thinking about my main project, Interconnected Law, and the progress I have and have not made. I was thinking about relationships, both romantic and friendships, which haven’t worked out or aren’t what I would want them to be, or which are current and may not work out.
A few years ago, someone close to me gave me the phrase Trying is good. This idea has long been part of my life philosophy, and this phrase gave a good encapsulation of it.
This covers everything from my approach to parkour and parkour coaching through to choices I make in life through to political work. In parkour, it isn’t whether we achieve a certain challenge that matters the most: it is the trying. We learn from the trying whether we complete the thing or not, it is the trying that is good. In life, the choice is either to stay in your present place or to try something. I am not saying we should always try: sometimes we aren’t able to, sometimes what we might lose is too great to risk, sometimes we just want to be content. But in many situations, trying is the better choice than not trying.
I do not think positively about the current socio-political situation, generally speaking. There are lots of problems, paths forward are not obvious or easy or likely and usually face a lot of opposition. But again, the choice is either to try and weave a better world, or to not try, and I set my choice on that matter long ago.
To respond to the lyrics of the song by Chumbawumba: Sometimes we get knocked down, and we either stay knocked down or we get back up again. Eventually, we will get knocked down for the final time (or perhaps drift of peacefully), but until then, all we can do is keep on trying.