The Perfectly Bearable Effortlessness of Being

 As I was taking my clothes out of the washing machine, I noticed that a pair of my underwear got dyed a bit with a shade of dark red, and looked now surprisingly better. I took it as a sign. From now onwards I shall let destiny always take its' course and wait down here watching Netflix for a miracle to happen. Obviously there is little chance it will happen, but hey, if nothing comes then it's destiny and afterall, waiting for miracle is totally effortless. 

 Effortlessness seems to be nowadays somehow a goal as well as a value itself. There is a motivational quote swinging about the internet saying 'If you have to force it, leave it'. While it is probably quite healthy not to waste your life in order to chase something intangible, there is also a danger: a danger of letting go just because something requires hard work. 

 An obvious example is probably a simple pair of socks. My mother used to mend socks all the time. Who does that nowadays? Who mends old socks?

 These examples could probably go on, but what is particularly concerning to me is that people, while chasing effortlessness, often choose not to work on their skills. Not to pursue their dreams. Not to practise five hours a day if that what it takes. After that we start believing in 'naturals'. People who succeeded  due to their supernatural abilities and to whom everything was just coming, simply being thrown their way. That's probably the biggest myth of modern times.

 We like to believe that life truly can be fully enjoyable, stress free and not requiring any hard work. 'Nature over nurture' seems to overrule all our belief systems. Until we get to an opportunistic conviction that 'if something doesn't happen, it is not meant to be'. Such fatalism is of course nothing new: Denis Diderot explained it well enough and it seems that in our times believing in something 'written in stars' should be perceived somehow eclectic. Nevertheless, the media all seem to support the need of things coming 'effortlessly'. You are supposed to have fun at all times and see results coming out just because they naturally belong to you, and are given to you because you deserve it. And if nothing happens to you, it is because it does not belong to you by nature, ie. you don't deserve it. By proclaiming effortlessness a new trend, the culture of success once again left plenty of people behind. Those of us who need to work hard for tangible results. And after all our hard work, they will write about us, make documentaries, and once again they will prove to others that we had that come 'effortlessly'.