By David Hegg

As a young boy, my dad taught me not to choose the easy path in life. He was a firm believer that anything worth doing would demand disciplined effort, and disciplined effort meant hard work. He insisted that my chores be done in the right way, which was hardly ever the easy way.

Today, things have changed. It seems our society is addicted to the easy way. We could blame it on the technology that has poured life into apps and seduced us into thinking everything should be easy, quick and enjoyable. Or we can blame it on wealth that allows us to hire others to do the hard things. And, perhaps, we can even go so far as to say life is supposed to be easy, free from struggle, and certainly never requiring fatigue or perseverance. All these may play a part, but behind them is the insidious lie that the best life is the easy life, which offers more leisure and less labor. This toxic ideal has permeated the younger half of our society, and we are beginning to see the disastrous results.

At the risk of displaying just how “old school” I am, let me get old and take you back to Aristotle. He said, “Both skill and virtue are always concerned with what is harder, because........

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