comfort?

I knew it was 8:15 this morning. I listen to NPR overnight, and thus, in the morning, and these radio guys are pretty good at telling you what time it is in the morning lest their hordes of listeners be late for work. Present company included. I knew it was 8:15, but I didn't want to get out of bed. I was comfortable.

Then, when I was in the shower, I remembered something - I remembered that we're not supposed to be comfortable. I was reminded of this when I recalled a speech that Robert F. Kennedy made in Capetown, South Africa in 1966. He said (when speaking of the dangers that the world faces):

For the fortunate among us, the fourth danger is comfort, the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who have the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. There is a Chinese curse which says "May he live in interesting times." Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone here will ultimately be judged - will ultimately judge himself - on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

So we part, I to my country and you to remain...

So I trudged on - to shun the dangers of comfort, and embrace the virtues of adversity...