For all-out war and small victories
Celebrating in life is most of the time a crippled event. We don’t celebrate our loses. We only party when we win and make the other’s loss part of our victory. There are exceptions when the enemy is nature or ourselves.
When did life become an all-out war? And who’s really winning? It’s easy. To victor goes the spoils… and the winners are:
- The government.
Your entire professional life is a struggle. Employee or self-employee, a big chunk of what you receive for your work goes to paying taxes. The huge amounts of money collected as taxes support an ineffective overbearing corrupt administration. It applies to any country. It’s a fact.
- The owners / shareholders of the company you work for.
Let’s be honest. The correlation between work contributed and profit received is inherently wrong. It’s also a fact we accept because it’s the smallest evil. Again, I’m not pro or con. It’s a fact.
- Nobody
When it comes to your personal life, every moment when your pride and ego hurts those close to you is part of an all-out war without winners. Nobody wins when you put the need for small victories above the wellbeing of those whom you pretend you love.
- You
So far, it seems that for most of the moments in your life you are a loser. While you’re given the illusion of celebrating a victory, the spoils go to others.
Yours are the real small victories that matter when the enemy is yourself.
Every moment when you become better than the moment before is your victory.
The second when you keep your mouth shut and refuse to continue an absurd argument with your better half is a small victory.
The choice of living healthier or giving back more is a small victory.
The choice of creating instead of destroying is a small victory.
None of these small victories will win a war for you, the unyielding warrior. Nevertheless, they might give back to you the most precious spoil: the other you, the peacemaker.
Short disclaimer: The Journal of an Uber Driver is a work of fiction.
Long disclaimer: The literary exercise to define a nowadays character for a novel led me to create these 25 blog posts. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any opinion expressed about Uber should not be interpreted as having a negative connotation. I admire the company as an incumbent of the platform economy and I am a registered Uber driver for research purposes.