Try, Try Again

A person I've known for a long time has always said, "Trying is a noisy way of doing nothing." I've never agreed with that decree. It's not so easy to disprove when you're ten years old, but as an adult, I have looked around my home life, my work life, my friend life, and especially my writing life, and I see people putting forth herculean efforts. Doesn't that spirit of constantly attempting to bring a task to fruition constitute the word trying?

Sure enough, the simple definition of try over at Merriam Webster states:

• to make an effort to do something : to attempt to accomplish or complete something
• to do or use (something) in order to see if it works or will be successful
• to do or use (something) in order to find out if you like it

Let's concentrate on that second bullet point for a minute, shall we? (Yes, that means go back and read it, please.) That second point implies that the outcome of our attempts is never guaranteed to be successful. We try to do something so we can "see if it works" or to see if it "will be successful." We actually have no way of knowing whether or not what we try to do will end up the way we want it to, or whether we'll encounter unknown obstacles along the way that impede, and sometimes, devastate us. And yet, we keep trying.

I don't know about you, but I don't see nothing in trying at all. What I see is bravery.