Sunday, October 16, 2016

One of the Saddest Sights to Me...

Is an abandoned blog. A place where someone once shared thoughts and then, one day, left it behind. Their lives became too busy, their thoughts ran dry, one day they just had nothing left to say.

I have much that needs to be written and shared, but precious little time to do it in. I can at least put up a little post, however, that says I still exist, I still remember my blog, and I will return.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Can't Build Mud - Can't Break it Either

Imagine a big watery handful of dirt and sludge, and imagine some poor kid trying to build a sand castle with it. He tries to make a tower, but in the end he has a muddy puddle. He tries to shape an arch, but he gets a muddy puddle. This kid is not going to be able to pull off any of his architectural endeavors... unless he decides to aspire to a muddy puddle.

At the same time, that kid's asshole brother is never going to be able to smash his castle.

Throughout the world there are a lot of therapeutic philosophies that boil down to some form of simplification. They tell you to loosen your connection to the world, not to get too tied to the ebbs and flows of life, give up desire and give up your love of this world. These philosophies exist because they work: try to build nothing and you can never have what you built destroyed. Store up treasure in heaven, lest the moth eat your suit and the rust sully your treasure.

This is an opting out of the pain of life by surrendering the pursuits of love and ambition. Despair requires a will that can be denied. Not only this, but the simple man automatically has greater claims to wisdom. He is not failing at anything; he never even bothered to try. He can dispense sage advice because what failed endeavors can you point to as evidence that he does not know what he is talking about.

He opted out of pain and failure. All he had to do was opt out of life first.

For living is repeated failing. Repeated frustration. A wrestling match with God via your struggles with his creation. If a man isn't failing, how much living is he doing?

What then does one do with this option? You might choose to take it and live as some version of a monk; you might start learning not to try. Alternately, knowing full well what you are subjecting yourself to, you might try to live all the same. You may not appear wise, you may lead a life of struggle, but you are choosing to live.

As with most things, I imagine that the best course of action is the essence of one option tempered by the wisdom of the other. Choose life, I say, but know that failure is despair and that life must be made simpler if it is to be managed. Do not just be water, have grit as well.

Like damp sand. Perfect for building a sandcastle... even if your asshole brother decides to come up and smash it later.