Obligations

When Lynette, a character from Desperate Housewives decided to take her ill neighbour under her wings, the neighbour responded with a

Oh, you don't have to take care of me. I don't want to be an obligation.

To which Lynette replied,

Look, most of the things in life are an obligation. Sending my kids to school, doing laundry and grocery shopping. And now, I've decided to make you my obligation.

That spoke volumes to me. About how life is meant to be ran like a marathon and not a 100-metre dash. About how when the new things in life loses their flavour and started to appear more like an obligation rather than a joy, you have to take them up and do them anyway.

Someone who's preparing for a 42km marathon told me that the first 30km has to do with your physical endurance. The last 12km is solely dependent on your mind. The mind is the one that will propel the body forward and get those legs chugging along to finish the race.

It made me think of how it applies to work, marriage, family and even hobbies and passion. All those turn into obligations at some point. And sadly at this point, many people give up. We see the soaring rates of divorce among our peers and I wonder, have we all evolved into creatures who give up at the slightest bump on the road and who cannot last the last 12km of our journeys? Are our parents made of better stuff to be able to endure and for some, experience a rejuvenation in their marriages?

I am the sort who likes doing things because I love doing them. Not because I had to. And likewise, I hate forcing people to do stuff they hate and to be an obligation or a burden to someone is a repulsive thought to me. But hey, am I glad that my boss view his staff as his obligation and made sure that we get our salaries every month. Am I ever so blessed that my mom woke up at the crack of dawn to feed me when I was a baby even though she didn't feel crazily joyful doing it. So many other examples that I could give. But so little time to do it because I am obligated to sleep now and wake up for that early morning meeting.

Obligations. It used to be a negative word in my dictionary. I'm seeing it differently now.