Life. It's a mixture of things. A pot-pourri. Existing in the here and now, we all have everyday things on our minds. Bills to pay, appointments, immediate plans. Those strands are interwoven with our personal anxieties and our memories of past times.
Anxieties may include worries about personal health, regrets about things said or done, fretting about security or family members or perhaps wider political issues. Memories may be from way back - happy times, routes not taken, places visited and the faces of people with whom we crossed paths. All that water under the bridge. Never to flow back.
Life. Don't we spend our entire lives wrestling with it, trying to fully understand what it is? Laughing and crying. Riding high or down in the doldrums. Each journey that is taken is different from the next one but there is clear commonality.
Arguably, choice is illusory. Does anyone really determine the direction their life will take? It's more about drifting along, responding to events, making the most of things. We find ourselves in situations that are never entirely of own making.
Sometimes a blogpost may be short. Like this one...
I like the last paragraph. Some of us are more than drifters. We are bumblers which I suppose is a special kind of drifter.
ReplyDeleteOh yes - a bumbler is a higher class of drifter.
DeleteLife is a series of circumstances that you can embrace and follow, ignore and turn away from, or do all of that.
ReplyDeleteIt's a journey not a destination!
I appreciate your reaction Bob.
Delete"drifting along" etc. That's me just drifting through life and overall it hasn't been too hard.
ReplyDeleteNice when you can look at it that way.
DeleteI have learned over the years to try to take each "hit" as it comes. There just seem to have been quite a few lately.
ReplyDeleteResilience is a good trait to own.
DeleteI think you're right that choice is illusory. Or at least our choices are more limited than we collectively believe.
ReplyDeleteI remember somebody condescendingly asking me my five year plan. How can I know my five year plan, I said, anything could happen in that time. (and it did)
Of course planning is important but my general philosophy is less about planning and more about trying to be in a position where I can grab a passing opportunity.
Planning sounds like a Chinese industrial strategy. Most of us take the rough with the smooth.
DeleteMae is always good for a quote. You've gathered more life experience than I have, and more formal education along with knowledge. Yet, all our wisdom and knowledge will die with us.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone really plans their life and it is as you describe. Life is what happens to you, with not a lot of intentional influence beyond your desires, your character and short term plans.
I don't want a return ticket.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how choices (even small ones) and circumstances beyond our control over can shape our lives . So much of it seems random. I think the important thing to do is to accept changes, roll with circumstances as best we can as they occur, and try to maintain our personal values and integrity along the way. And try to enjoy each day. After all, we only have one life.
ReplyDeleteI loved this post as it made me really think. When I look back on my life, I've had to deal with some really difficult things, but in the end, I think those obstacles helped me to become more kind and empathetic. A lot has happened in my life that as a young man, I would have never expected. But I guess that's the case with most people.
ReplyDeleteAs John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while we're busy making other plans."
ReplyDeleteI was always amazed at the people who planned their lives. How did they do that?
ReplyDeleteWhat's that old saying, "If you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans."
There are a few bold choices that I have made over the years that resulted in me being where I am today. A few choices I made that would have led in an entirely different direction. Rather than think what might have been, I am happy with where I am
ReplyDeleteMy younger brother always says, "Things have a way of working out!" It's not always the way we think or want it to be but that's what happens. He is more relaxed about life while my sister and I have always been worriers. It's an awful habit and hard to break!
ReplyDeleteI've always felt like my life is very much a "drifting along" kind of experience. Fortunately I have been able to drift in some interesting directions!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I was just reading a novel last night, Elizabeth Strout, "Oh William!" where someone made your point about the illusory nature of "choice" in life.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some very driven and ambitious people are more effective in making and pursuing their choices in life, but even then there are many contingencies and either lucky (for them) breaks or not.