“All we can do is all we can do.”
– Akira, The Wind and the Void
By Ryan Kirk

A very simple saying, and very true.

Akira first learned those words as a boy, from his father, and they have been a support to him in all the years of his rule. He has largely been a good lord to his subjects and a strong leader to his men. Not to say his record is unimpeachable – he has done terrible, dishonorable things – but everything he has done, the ill deeds and the good, has been done for the good of his people.

And as of late, in this story, he’s basically been leading them through one disaster after another, catastrophes piling up on each other, and he has done so with courage and dignity. As things are coming to a head, with the fate of all his people at stake, the weight of the world itself bears down on him and his circle of friends. Even with everything they can do, it may not be enough to win the day.

That’s when he says these words, and they are oddly comforting.

When one carries the world, and truly cares for it, one can easily either exhaust oneself trying to do everything, or fall to despair at how much there is to do and how little one can accomplish, or both. Usually both.

But there is no shame in having limits. There is no shame in failure, either, so long as one keeps trying. There is nothing to be embarrassed about in simply being mortal, and therefore limited in one’s capacities. It’s the same for everyone.

It is impossible to do everything.

So just do what you can do.

That’s all any of us can do.