Letter: No Shortcuts To Success

In simple computer language, the three keys in the accompanying photograph are shortcuts.

Pressed in conjunction with other keys, they enable various functions to be performed more quickly, almost without thought, thus making learning easier.

Or so we think.

Upon discovering my computer keyboard the other night, my almost-two-year-old granddaughter took the time to pry off two of these three buttons.

I now no longer have the option to use either the control or command keys.

Then again, the loss of the keys is of no consequence; I never used them in the first place.

Why? Because by nature I am a plodder.

In a sense, I am the tortoise in Aesop’s fable of The Hare & The Tortoise.

By plodding along instead of sprinting ahead like the hare, I think I achieve more of lasting value in life.

I am not alone in this belief.

American journalist Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) made the following observation in a 1980 New Year’s Eve essay entitled, “Learning Cannot Come Easy.”

“You have to drill through mud and water to get oil, you have to sift through sand and silt to get gold, and you have to chop and hack through stone to get diamonds – so why do so many people feel that the treasure of ideas should come to them with little or no effort?

“We recognize that in the physical world you get nothing for nothing, no labor, no fruits; no sawing, no wood pile. Yet in the world of ideas, we expect it all to be laid out on a platter, cut up, pre-chewed, and even pre-digested if that were possible.

“Whatever else educating ourselves may be, it cannot be easy. It cannot be painless. It cannot be spoon-fed. But it can be a delight, as any difficult challenge can be if we look upon it as an adventure.”

To live an adventurous life, one must only exercise the option of doing the hard, satisfying work needed for success.

That is truly to be in control and command.

There are no shortcuts.