Third Week In The Chelsea by Jefferson Airplane
or "What Would Success Be?"

Here and now I don’t think we truly know what success is. So what might it be, what would success be if we did know?

Would it involve our ideals, whether or not we’ve lived up to them? Would it involve having altered them? Would it involve our finances, the wealth we have or haven’t accumulated? Would it involve having changed our expectations? Would it involve our loved ones, our partners, our children, our parents?

What about the ability to take a walk on a perfect day- a sparklingly clear spring day or a rainy, windy, winter day- would it involve that? What about the ability to have a relaxed, uncluttered mind during that walk, the ability to breathe deeply and taste the air, would success involve that?

What would success have been to us once, what would it be here and now?

“I never did find a place to shine, to express who I truly am…”

“I don’t have much saved. I never really made the money I thought I might…”

“I never did find the right person for me. At least not one that was willing to be with me. I did find some wrong ones though…”

“I had so much fun back then. I’m not even sure what fun is anymore…”

“I made some money but I don’t know if I really touched any lives…”

“You have to be so responsible to be a parent, so selfless. Maybe I just wasn’t cut out for that…”

What is success? What would it be for us, here and now?

Is it time that we understand that it already is what it would be? Is it time to look at what we have and settle into it because it is our success? Is it time to let go of some thoughts and some false needs so we can embrace what our arms and hearts already hold?

We have dreams and they help get us through. We dream we will write, we dream we will invent, we dream we will act or paint or bake. Those dreams give us fuel, they give us vim and vigor. Those dreams give us targets, they give us hope of one day being in a different place. But time passes, we get older and we look around to see that we are not writing or acting and we maybe never will. We think of what we could have been, what we might have done, we see some of our once wide open vistas fade. And the wind goes right out of our sails. We look in the mirror, see wrinkles we’d only ever seen on the faces of our parents and we deflate just a little bit.

But maybe that’s not what should happen, not how we should feel. Maybe we should turn from the mirror, walk into the next room and look at who is waiting there for us, what is waiting there for us. Maybe we should look at who and what we live with and embrace her, embrace him, embrace it. Look at who we are and embrace that, look at the people who love us and hold them tight. Look at their eyes, their smiles and understand what we do have and how fortunate we are for it.

Then when we return to the mirror we can look there for things that need changing and, by all means, try to change them. We should continue striving and improving. After all, that is what life is- striving.

And our dreams, the ones we think we may never reach, what of them? We should embrace them too, embrace them hard. We should let them fuel us, inflate us, invigorate us. That we may never realize those dreams is not the point- they’re dreams. We should let them be dreams. Dreams matter a great deal, and maybe, just maybe when we get to the end of our time they will be with us still. Maybe, just maybe we will leave this world dreaming, still dreaming.

Where is the failure in that?