Came across this rather lovely double-Aesop the other day. First we have the “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet” thing, in terms of jobs – no matter how frustrating your gig, it has to be better than being a walking lottery-ball in winter.
But then we’ve got the huge bonus – the one person in the bunch who doesn’t get stuck on the (true) fact of the stupidity of the job, but remembers instead – hey, this is still a moment in my life, even if I am selling it for something silly – and I have enough respect for my own moments to have fun anyhow!
Such non-linear wisdom is actually one of the greatest secrets of life, and learning to feel and work whimsy along that line is a skill very much worth building into all our days, so we can use it often, naturally, with finesse.
I keep getting frustrated listening to arguments that completely ignore reason – and also arguments that pretend reason is everything a person requires.
Both cases are fatally imbalanced. Reason does likes to think itself all, of course – because it is, in effect, the spotlight that focusses moment to moment (seven-second wide?) consciousness, most clearly.
But that is like a particular part of our mind getting too big for it’s britches, swollen with vanity. The other stuff – the part that includes empathy, hilarity, absurdity and purest wonder, is no less critical, nourishing, or necessary – it is, in fact, that non-rational but essentially life-affirming stuff (like LOVE) that makes all the reasoning we do more than just a clever exercise.
I know, how rude. Still I insist – there actually is such a thing as purpose left in the world – and reason, skill and determination aren’t here to serve purposes like greed and competition (fundamentally alienating, even as victories).
Not when there are so many good works still to be done. Good moments to have, too – even if we are in for some pretty concentrated-stupid for awhile.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
