Dan Eldon spent his life daring to live and exuding empathy in everything he did.
What’s bigger than your best dream? Life, according to Jason Russell.
This August, during Invisible Children’s Fourth Estate Leadership Summit, Jason spoke to a crowd of more than 1,500 activists, urging them to pursue their goals and aspirations, but understanding that their life was bigger than their best dream for it.
More often than not we see our individual lifespan as a schedule for our dreams, and when time runs out, so do we. I think that’s the reason so many people set such extraordinary goals for their lives – because they desperately want to be remembered once they’ve passed. I used to be one of these people. Sometimes I still am. Years ago, I decided that I would win a Pulitzer Prize by the time I was 30 – it would be how I gauged the success of my twenties. A grand goal, and one I cannot confidently say I will achieve, but if I do, I’ll claim to have expected it all along.
At the same time that dreamers are busy dreaming, and doers are busy doing, others are content to make it through this life without feeling the need to leave an impact, or are at least doing a fine job of convincing others they aren’t interested in such glory. Neither of these mindsets are inherently wrong, but each will almost always lead to disappointment if chased after without the other.
When combined, these mindsets become immeasurably more powerful. When you aren’t living simply to leave an impact, and still setting grandiose goals for your life, death becomes an afterthought, rather than a constant reminder of the things you haven’t done yet.
To some people, death is simply an afterthought. They’re too busy doing other things to worry about the inevitable. To me, that’s the best way to live. What if the point of life is to do the things you love, with the people you love, while showing love to the world? For the late Dan Eldon, that was his purpose and he mastered it splendidly. His life was a constant adventure of self-discovery through selfless sacrifice. Dan was an artist and photographer who paired his talent and compassion with his insatiable appetite for adventure. He spent his young life daring to live and exuding empathy in everything he did. He was an accomplished professional – the youngest photojournalist in the history of Reuters at the time of his placement.
Yet, despite all of his successes, he remained humble and curious. He spent the last months of his life in Somalia where he photographed the anguish of suffering people in an attempt to gain the world’s attention – not for himself, but for those he was photographing. While on assignment, Dan and his fellow journalists were attacked by a mob of angry and misinformed Somalians, and he was beaten to death. Despite dying when he was just twenty-two years old, it’s safe to say that Dan lived larger than many of us have in all of our years. His legacy lives on not because he wanted it to, but simply because he chose to live a life that mattered.
Your life is bigger than your best dream for it.
It really is.
Live to live, and not to make death more beautiful or your time on earth more meaningful. When you make the decision to live with humility, compassion and adventure at the core of your spirit, those things will happen naturally. So live justly and just live.
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