11:7:11
Life Is Tragic
Life is tragic. Inevitably so. Why?
The simple reason is--for all our desires--life is short. There is
not enough time to have it come out right.
There
is
not
enough
energy
to
make
it
right.
Or
ever
enough
of that stand-in for energy--money--to even buy the
illusion of it going right
(ask some MegaBucks lottery winners).
If we ultimately lack time and energy to get life right--to savor a
contentment with life lived as we desire from our inner core--what else
derails our yearning for contentment? Very simply, things outside our
control. Bad things happen and dispatch optimistic plans.
But we must also plead guilty of adding to the "life is short"
quandary by our tendency--as flawed individuals--toward repetition of
the same woeful life experiences, over and over. We don't learn.
Guy gets married, gets divorced, gets married ... until by wife #5 he gains belated enlightenment: Perhaps he's not the marrying type. So, too often, we mimic Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, re-doing the same doomed behaviors, any lesson of failure lost on us.
![[frowny face]](FrownyFace.gif)
Moreover, we compound our failure to learn
from past
mistakes by not
understanding the future brings only change. Everything is in flux: The
failed solution for a past problem is unlikely to work for a present
(or future) problem that is slightly
different. As Heraclitus said, We
don't step in the same river twice.
One life outcome worse than repetitive Groundhog Day behaviors is denial
implemented by procrastination. Okay, if life is short and tragic, why
not deny the arc of life from the get-go?
The American poet Robert Bly was one of the first to identify a
contemporary pattern of prolonging adolescence, putting off adult
responsibility, in some sort of Hope-I-Never-Grow-Old logic. But the
fallacy is, Life deals you a hand of cards to play. Throwing away cards
by refusing to acknowledge the stages
of life means finally playing out with fewer and fewer, then no choices.
We see women put off marriage and kids as long as possible, focussing on
often imaginary (but planned) careers, and increasingly settling for
service (read menial) labors .... Yes, middle-aged men and women dress
and act indistinguishably from high-schoolers, with a bounce to their
step, and faces unlined by the burdens of parenthood, mortgage,
investing for the future. The moment was always now for Peter Pan.
Student to pensioner without a stop for adulthood?
Life begins. Pauses on hold. Ends. Not embracing the tragic arc of
life is an even greater tragedy and a sure waste.
Read Charlie Dickinson's
story collection, The Cat
at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable
formats:
.mobi
(Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
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