Salt: A short story about Jack.
Jack woke up like he did every other morning: fighting a huge temptation. The snooze button. It is deadly and has the power to seriously wreck a day. Every morning it is a fight.
Today Jack won. This was not true every morning. He is averaging a 60% success rate at the moment. Not great, but slightly above average.
Ironically, his fight with the alarm clock is quite symbolic of life. He is, in his own words, slightly above average. “Nothing to see here” as the police say at the crime scene, trying to usher you past quickly. And there isn’t anything worth seeing with Jack. Everything about Jack’s life seemed to be the same as everyone else. The house, the car, the debts, the job, the kids and the holiday (if they can afford it this year). One day rolled into the next without any real distinction. Sure, there are a few treasured memories and the odd victory scattered in his history annuals, but apart from that – life had blended into a slight blur – nothing really stood out.
Like his colleagues at work, he had the mantra: one day things will be better.
Unfortunately it was blind hope – you know, the kind of hope that blinds you to the inevitable and obvious truth: things aren’t going to change, they are going to be exactly the same each and every day and the “one day things will be better” medicine provides some temporary relief and life is endured again through rationalisation.
Mediocrity had slowly chocked yesteryear’s dreams from Jack. It made sense though; he now had a wife and kids to support and nurture. Mind you, even the marriage and fathering part of his life had settled into a default routine. Jack still loved his wife. Still loved his kids. But he had lost the energy years ago to be really great at being a husband and Dad. Enter the default routine with all its appeal and safety.
