The Electric Train Set

The Electric Train Set

Passion is like an electric train set

Around and around with what seems like no purpose and nothing to look towards

Getting faster and faster in that infinite circle around the Christmas tree

Its small metal wheels turning one after another

Continuing to keep inching its way along the track with what seems like

No destination

I mean, how can there be one?

If the track is just in a circle what is there to reach?

And don’t you think after countless trips around the railroad

The wheels would ware down?

The black paint will begin to chip away and the once sharp edges will become

Smooth wedges

The passion will begin to fade and start to slip away only to be regained

And one day, that train will eventually run off its tracks

One day it will break free of the entrapment of the circle and get to explore

It will build up just enough speed to make it over the tracks and onto the

 Smooth, wood floor

Get to finally improve and actually make it somewhere

But don’t get me wrong, there will be obstacles

That small electric train will have to dodge

The little hands of toddlers reaching for their makers and crayons

The furry paws of the family dog racing to get the leftovers of dinner

The black leather shoes of  dad who just came home from work and more than anything… just want to sit down

The peep toed heels of mom trying to clean up the house

Before leaving for her late night meeting

All of them really just want the train back on the track

They don’t believe it could make it anywhere

All posing as roadblocks to end the train’s journey

To destroy all that it has worked for

Thinking that it would run into the edge of the cabinet and get stuck

And fail

You see, they’ve never experienced passion like the little electric train

And if the electric trains survives all that

There’s one last thing to avoid

Maybe the worst of all if it does in fact encounter it

The ever so feared…dead batteries

When the passion is lost

When the goal becomes uninteresting and the drive to improve becomes inexistent 

When all the electric train has worked for seems to become a blur and disappear

There was never any guarantee

After all the train was searching for a station that might not even exist

But the little electric train must realize what it truly wants

If it wants to be stuck on that redundant track forever or if it wants to be free

And to reach its goals

If it wants to give up or to pull out every last bit of power left in the batteries

To use its passion as a drive to keep going

For the love of success

And to one day 

Reach the station