“Per Aspera Ad Astra” is Latin for ‘through hardship to the stars’ and can be taken several related ways including it is through adversity we grow, that our failures teach us more than our successes or that easy roads rarely lead anywhere interesting. The phrase always reminds me of JFK’s 1962 moonshot speech: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills…”
The take home here is beware the easy road… it usually leads to mediocrity. If the road is easy, it probably isn’t going anywhere worthwhile.
Closing Quotes:
“Having nothing to struggle against, they have nothing to struggle for.” – Charles Bukowski, 1920-1994, poet, novelist, short story writer
“Remember, the easy road often becomes the hard, and the hard road often becomes easy.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki, b. 1947, ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’
“Take those road hazards- the potholes, ruts, detours, and all the rest- as evidence that you were on the right route. It’s when you find yourself on that big, broad, easy road that you ought to worry.” – Joni Eareckson Tada, b. 1949
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier