Tuesday, August 25, 2026
When should you “go after it?” There are two ways of looking at this. The first is: “You only live once—go get ’em tiger; go after it!” The second is: “You are living preeminently and transcendentally—remain still and holy before and after.”
When you’re buzzing, out with friends, and having a good time, you might feel a sudden rush of desire. A cutie flirts with you—irresistible. You’re uninhibited, ready to cut loose. The head says, “You only live once—go for it tiger. Go after it.” Meanwhile, a deeper sense within whispers, “I go before.”
We give in to the fleshiness of life. Who hasn’t? Donuts are irresistible. So is random sex. It’s delicious—until the hollow aftertaste of bloat, cigarettes, and cheap beer sets in.
Other times, desire has a “non-fleshy” and non-flashy feel. You want something because it extends life beyond the wanting. It’s a foretaste and an afterglow: life upon life, light upon light, and so on. Call that a lasting legacy, a hallowed taste of joy.
When you give in to a mere craving—whether it is gratuitous sex, donuts, or an impulsive purchase—it leaves behind the aftertaste of simply bagging a goalpost. But when you give in to a heartfelt, deep desire—something you love that stretches your budget or your imagination—it creates a lasting foretaste of heaven. It carries true sustenance. That legacy echoes with an engorged tumescence that overflows with potency, not a flaccid aftertaste of regret.
Whatever you are contemplating, does it leave behind impotence, craving, and hollowness? Or does it offer a longer-lasting, hallowed foretaste of heaven, suffused with joy begotten of what expands from within itself eternally? Something that bleeds into the margins rather than “bagging it.”
If the ramifications are measurable, hollow, and finite: you only live once—go after it tiger.
If the ramifications are boundless, overflowing, hallowed, and life-giving: be still (before and after).