Not So Ideal Is It?
Time to Reach for the Bootstraps
(Setting: A quiet, timeless study, filled with the scent of old paper and dust motes dancing in the light.)
Sophia: We speak often of "reaching for the bootstraps"—the singular effort of pulling oneself up by sheer will. But this notion implies the climb is clean. I find, however, that the ascent is rarely clean. It begins in the mud of reality, which often looks discouraging.
Bertrand: Discouraging is the right word, Sophia. When I observe humans striving for what they label as high-minded pursuits—moral clarity, political overhaul—I often see something darker at the core. That intense passion, the fire in the belly, frequently turns out to be nothing more than a desire to crush opposition or, perhaps more dangerously, simply to seize the instruments of command over others.
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
— Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Sophia: You suggest that the motivation powering the struggle is inherently corruptible—that even the loftiest of human intentions are merely self-serving vanity disguised as virtue?
Bertrand: Precisely. If every grand effort is fundamentally tainted by the drive for power, where is the secure ground for a genuine, upward effort? How can one truly reach for the light if the urge to dominate is built into the tool?
William: (Quietly, tracing a pattern on the tabletop) The ground isn’t in the movement; it’s in the refusal to surrender the soul. The true effort isn’t about avoiding failure or seeking control; it’s about choosing to remain engaged with existence. I see the choice laid out: on one side, there is the clean, unfeeling space of utter oblivion, a cessation of all sensation; and on the other, there is a world saturated with loss and human sorrow. If those are the two poles, I will always choose the world that allows me to feel the full measure of my pain, because that pain is what proves I am here.
Between grief and nothing I will take grief.
— William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Sophia: That is a profound commitment, William. You articulate the necessary foundation for any true ascent. Bertrand warns us to scrutinize the banner we march under, lest we mistake a hunger for power for a thirst for righteousness. But you, William, remind us that the prerequisite for honesty and effort is the conscious choice to live fully—even if that means enduring sorrow.
The act of "reaching for the bootstraps," then, is not blind optimism, nor is it a search for a pure motive. It is the demanding choice to confront the painful reality you describe, William, while simultaneously exercising the skepticism you possess, Bertrand. It is the recognition that the grief itself is the ballast, the necessary counterweight to prevent the entire enterprise from becoming merely another selfish grab for control.
The strength to rise comes from knowing why you are rising, and knowing that the cost of honest effort is always paid in awareness, not comfort.
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