I could not cross the imaginary Rubicon without
comment. You know; the ending of one year and the beginning of the next.
Arbitrary as doing so may appear, our
arrangement requires change of situation to motivate hope and cultivate trusting.
If there were no end to misery, by any
effort, then all would be an ocean of despair; a proposition that continues to
resurface from time to time. Winter is
cold enough without such dark foreboding; we must find reason to mark a change;
then imbue it with opportunity.
I like that about us humans.
What a droll experience passing days without
passion would be. I’m told confinement is much like that; it drives some mad; others
are just driven away from a society that punishes its victims. We’re here, on this very day, surveying the
coming year with a sense of almost giddy promise; along with a sense of ache in
loss as well. For surely the change
takes as well as brings, leaving life’s edges a bit more frayed; suddenly noticing
seams no longer fitting as easily as they had in our youth. I heard a phrase the other day that fed my
trolling for irony. Someone attempting
to persuade another replied to the proposition as
“You’re making empty promises!”
The advocate immediately replied,
“Aren’t
they all?”
There was a moment in time, when the idea
of empty promises struck me as dishonest and insulting; revealing them as just manipulation
would make me bitter since my conviction was one of promises being ironclad;
where breaking a promise was the worst of offenses. Time has seasoned me, as I know better. Making promises is, I believe, a policy of
wishful prediction. That can be commendable
from a point of view; to possess a vision where the promise is fulfilled to
every rich detail of expressed desire in reward. Yet, too, I am able to accept that none of us
are in control of the future, so guaranteeing a concrete end state is an
invitation into make believe at the best and dwelling in disappointment at its
worse.
That is acceptable as well. We make believe all the time. There is a paradox asking which power is
supreme? Inherent power, that which you
personally possess; or granted power, that which is bestowed upon you to use as
you deem fit? By and large the popular
assumption is that personal power is the greatest for we alone weld its
purpose. But the question reveals the
greatest misconception of all; power has
no master. All our plans and schemes
rely on our deluded assumption that we are in control of anything; that
anything is inherently ours to claim or keep as ours alone. It is only through suffering are we awaken to
the impermanence of anything we hold safe or secure. We are, after all, just tourist in this
physical plan. In fact, I might take
this moment to add, the more we suffer loss, the closer we get to the actual nature
of our being; temporary.
So then, in that vein of consideration ~
along with a grain of humor for the effort ~ May I wish those who know me, and
those with nodding acquaintance, all the suffering the year has to offer….then perhaps
we can be sad together…until we find the humor of it all.
