Nothing Comes From Nothing

This from a song that is sung is one of the most important lessons of life: “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.”¹ All the world, and all of us must face the fact that nothing comes from nothing, that nothing ever could. All the elements there are always existed. All the components of creation always were. Truth is eternal, but knowledge, invention, improvement, production, character, talent, ability — all have to be developed by thought, effort, work, practice, performance; by putting in whatever we expect to get out. If we have friends that we can count on, it is largely because we have made friends. Some may ride along on the friends of their families, on the friends of their friends, or suppose that friendship will simply show itself. But someone, sometime, had to make the effort that fosters friendship. Some things we inherit. Some things are passed to us from others. But this doesn’t make of us anything we aren’t. We may enjoy the talents of others, but this doesn’t develop our own. We do not suddenly become what we do not cooperate in becoming. We do not learn well what we are not willing to learn. In indifference, some things may remain in our minds, some things may attach themselves to us. But generally what we are, what we do, what we become is because we were willing to put in for what we want to get out. And what we shall be is what we are, plus what we add to it — always and forever. And there would be no better time than now to decide to learn, to do, to develop, to work, to improve, to produce, to increase our competence, to extend ourselves in service. “The darkest day in life,” said Allen Shawn, “is the one in which we expect something for nothing.”² “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.”