What’s your purpose?

Robert F. Kennedy

The world is not always kind to the people who have a greater sense of purpose; it is often harder and crueler toward those people.
Because they care, they will be hurt. They are people who have seen the possibilities and the great things we can achieve. Once they see these things, it is impossible for them to set them aside. Their vision keeps them from quitting, even when others don’t see it.
Robert F. Kennedy said, “Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’”
What does this mean to each of us? What does it stand for, and which part represents the way we live our lives? Are we cautious and hesitant with our desires, or do we act and make them reality? Too often our dreams lie dormant in the back of our minds while we find one more excuse to set them aside as time continues to pass by.
As people, we are very capable of being average, even more capable of procrastination and easily allowing time to evaporate. Our lives are very short, and we should make every moment matter. RFK seemed to be a person of determination who knew he had a purpose. He was not afraid of it. He didn’t seem to set it aside; instead, he confronted his vision and the obstacles to its realization.
When we put aside our fear of failure or hesitancy in doing what is hard, and we do it because we believe in it, there is no limit to our accomplishment. When we accept that each of us is put on this Earth for a purpose and not by chance, we realize that the selfless things are all that matter. When we make others’ lives a bigger part of our own, we can live with a passion to help. When we pursue the dreams locked in our minds and make them reality, we are more likely to offer our time to help make someone else’s come true. Most of us can’t go out and change the world, but we can make a difference to the people we know and care about.
One day we might find all that mattered to us went undone and was real in only our imagination. If we are fortunate, we will realize that our dreams are worth the struggle. There is not a better time for us to re-examine our own lives than now. We should not take a moment for granted.
Although I might disagree with Ted Kennedy’s position on most issues, he recognized in his brother’s eulogy more than 40 years ago the vision and determination that made RFK so appealing to the idealist in all of us:
“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him, and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world.”