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That's probably his euphemism for life being downright hard about 50% of the time. We all get a dose of 'challenge' at some point. For some, it seems life puts in front of them more than their 50%.
Scholars write volumes, poets pin verses, composers create music, painters splash their canvasses with renderings about the 50% of the time that life is downright crappy.
Some artists even believe it is crappy 100% of the time; others stay with the 50% and some believe it is a passing thing. From this, critics buttonhole artistic works into three categories-naturalistic, realistic, and romantic.
Naturalists believe that a person cannot rise above his circumstances; that his baser instincts rule him, and that he will succumb to their inevitability; or, to put it another way--life is just one damn thing after another, so why fight it? Carpe diem! Live for today. Grab all the pleasure you can, no matter who it hurts.
Realists, on the other hand, also adhere to the theory that life is a crap shoot; but they also are convinced that man can rise above his baser instincts and circumstances. Pulling oneself up by his bootstraps, so to speak. Lends itself to, if not a happy ending, at least hope.
Finally, the romanticist, or idealist, who is certain he can change the world and control its outcome just by his actions. He believes he can effect change and a happy ending through forgiveness and tolerance. Wearing rose-colored glasses, some say .
I must confess to falling in that third category. In spite of the fact that people so often disappoint me, I still believe that man is not inherently evil but good; I never expect people to lie to me, to cheat on me, to say evil things about me, or to harm me physically or emotionally. And if they fail me, I always have faith that at some point they will want to correct their errors and set things right again.
I do think the environment into which we are thrust or into which we voluntarily place ourselves can make us evil and sinful-- some of that is the naturalistic approach; however, I also see wonderful people come from horrible circumstances, and I witness people leave their bad influences often to do magnificent things for humanity.
One could say that these people are realists; they improve their situation through their actions. However, I contend that they improve their circumstances through free will. They must first have the will to want to take action to improve themselves or to correct their wrongs of the past.
We have been born into a perfect universe; everything in our universe is flawless--the earth, the animals, the birds, the insects, the sun, the moon and all the rest of infinite space. Everything functions in complete synchronization with its counterparts--except for one species; that, of course is man. Nonetheless, that is why I am a Christian. I refuse to believe that natural selection gave rise to such perfection. It took a perfect hand.
So why isn't man also perfect? Because God gave to man one other trait, which is the ability to reason. Because man possesses that quality, he needs a coping mechanism,
And that is what rules our universe; we have the choice to be just as good as we want to be. Naturally, the opposite is also true; we can be just as evil as we choose. However, we have one other trait unique to man--a conscience; some call it our soul. Free will involves listening to our conscience; when we ignore it, we go astray. It can lead us back though, if we let it..
Because I'm a Romantic, I choose to believe that man is inherently good and will come to want to be better. He can be if he follows his inner voice. It never lies.
