“Lose Yourself” is instructive storytelling at its best. We witness the physical agony of trying to reach for an opportunity only to fail, but that isn’t the end of the narrative. After the loss, the author is thumping the steady instruction to get back at it. “This may be the only opportunity that I got.”
One hundred and thirty-two years earlier, Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Opportunity” written in 1870, utilized similar poetic storytelling to convey to the reader the emotional impact of missing an opportunity. Unlike in “Lose Yourself” Jackson doesn’t provide instructional moments but rather relies on the residual emotion present after a lack of action. She hopes to touch the reader’s soul and ignite an engine of action when opportunity does present.
I find this poem inspirational not only in my own religious life, its parable of divine grace is straightforward and highly applicable, but its obvious utility in a creative life is just as measurable. An image, idea or inspiration will often hover like a hummingbird at a plant, arriving and leaving with as much speed as the gates closing in the rock.
Though Jackson uses “gentler” language than Eminem to convey her narrative, the implied message is no different. She never directly speaks to the change necessary for the reader to not miss the opportunity offered, yet - feel the last thump of the last lines: “When, swinging swift, the golden gates again / Were rocky wall, by which I wept in vain.”
The abrupt action of the gates closing have the same jolting energy found in “Lose Yourself” - existing to ignite the awareness and motivation to make sure the opportunity isn’t missed.
Is the point of opportunity to not miss it? Jackson and Eminem seem in agreement that to miss it will leave you with emotional pain.
But in a modern world where “opportunity” is blasted at every corner of the street, on our phones, tv and news, it is sometimes difficult to decipher what is truly an opportunity and what is just good marketing. And when most of it is framed to be as consequential and just as important as the deeply personal moments in Eminem’s and Helen Hunt Jackson’s work, how is our awareness to opportunity shaped?
Returning to Eminem and Jackson’s works it is clear that awareness to opportunity is not something in the head. It isn’t a thought that can be influenced by one minute shorts, or be found in one of a million six-week courses.
Awareness of opportunity builds in the heart, spreads to the gut and is implemented in the mind.
So often “opportunity” is linked to money, and neither Eminem nor Jackson touch on the financial gain of opportunity. Their hearts hurt when they don’t take up opportunity, not their wallets.
So maybe nurturing the heart is what will build awareness to opportunity, the courage to reach out and grab it, the vision to recognize true opportunity over false ones, the physical will-power to overcome the great soulful change that opportunity brings.
This has been an unexpected Thursday Reflection for me to write today, I set out with such a different reflection on these two pieces at first reading, and as I sat with a cup of tea and digested their words, a deeper and more important reflection surfaced.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these works and you get a bit of time to sit with yourself and reflect on opportunity in your own world. Thanks for reading and spending a bit of time with me today.
Brittany