When All You've Ever Wanted Is Not Enough
-- Harold Kushner
If logic tells us that life is a meaningless accident, says Ecclesiastes at
the end of his journey, don't give up on life. Give up on logic. Listen to
that voice inside you which prompted you to ask the question in the first
place. If logic tells you that in the long run, nothing makes a difference
because we all die and disappear, then don't live in the long run. Instead
of brooding over the fact that nothing lasts, accept that as one of the
truths of life, and learn to find meaning and purpose in the transitory, in
the joys that fade. Learn to savor the moment, even if it does not last
forever. In fact, learn to savor it because it is only a moment and will
not last. Moments of our lives can be eternal without being everlasting.
Can you stop and close your eyes and remember something that happened for
only a moment or two many years ago? It may have been a view of a
spectacular landscape, or a conversation that made you feel loved and
appreciated. In a sense it did not last very long at all, but in another
sense it has lasted all those years and is still going on. That is the only
kind of eternity this world grants us. Can you close your eyes and conjure
up the memory of someone who is now dead but once meant a lot to you? Can
you, in your mind, hear her voice and feel her touch? There is proof that a
person, by learning how to live, can cheat death and live beyond her
allotted years.
When we stop searching for the Great Answer, the Immortal Deed which will
give our lives ongoing meaning, and instead concentrate on filling our
individual days with moments that gratify us, then we will find the only
possible answer to the question, What is life about? It is not about
writing great books, amassing great wealth, achieving great power. It is
about loving and being loved. It is about enjoying your food and sitting in
the sun rather than rushing through lunch and hurrying back to the office.
It is about savoring the beauty of the moments that don't last, the
sunsets, the leaves turning color, the rare moments of true human
communication. It is about savoring them rather than missing out on them
because we are so busy and they will not hold still until we get around
them. The author of Ecclesiastes spent most of his life looking for the
Grand Solution, the Big Answer to the Big Question, only to learn after
wasting many years that trying to find one Big Answer to the problem of
living is like trying to eat one Big Meal so that you will never have to
eat again. There is no Answer, but there are answers: love and the joy of
working, and the simple pleasures of food and fresh clothes, the little
things that tend to get lost and trampled in the search for the Grand
Solution to the Problem of Life and emerge, like the proverbial bluebird of
happiness, only when we have stopped searching. When we come to that stage
in our lives when we are less able to accomplish but more able to enjoy, we
will have attained the wisdom that Ecclesiastes finally found after so many
false starts and disappointments.
Corita Kent, the former nun turned graphic artist, says in one of her
posters, "Life is a series of moments/to live each one is to succeed." We
misunderstand what it really means to be alive if we think that we can
solve the problem of living once and for all by acqiuiring wealth,
acquiring an education, acquiring a suitable husband or wife. We never
solve the problem of living once and for all. We can only deal with it day
by day, a constant struggle to fill each day with one day's worth of
meaning. This, ultimately, is Ecclesiastes' insight and advice to us. Our
author looked in vain for the key to the meaning of life. Try as he might,
he could never find it. But despite his repeated failures, he could not
bring himself to conclude that life was meaningless. He saw and felt the
futility, the injustice of so much that happens to us on earth. But at the
same time, he sensed that life, however muddled and frustrating, was too
sacred, too special, too full of possibilities to be meaningless, even
though he could never find the meaning. At last, he found it not in a few
great deeds but in thousands of little ones.
posted by miele @ 1:01 PM
2 Comments:
Here's to all small things we trivialize sometimes - cleaning dirt between tiles (haha! di talaga nakalimutan eh noh), sitting on the couch and doing nothing, simple texts.
I love this article. : )
See you soon, Beege! : )
I love this article too! :)
Why complicate the simplicity of living? Hang in there Bigs! :)
Carpe Diem! See you pare :)
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