The news lately has been draining like a clogged up sink. Bits of hope and despair floating in a pool of barely moving stillness…emptying just enough to make room to fill again. The level stays the same…too many snakes…none of them getting the job done.
It isn’t what we don’t or can’t do…the real question is: Will we ever be satisfied?
We’ve been treading in stagnant water for a long time now. Like all of the great civilizations in the past, we make huge strides at warp speed and ride the high tide…flopping in the sand when the water recedes…caught up in man-made seaweed.
Human beings are not hardwired to be happy with things staying the same. We tinker…then when the wheels are moving too smoothly, we throw a monkey wrench in the spokes…I’ve tossed a few myself…so I speak from experience.
We are all competitive. It’s the character flaw that inspires us and hinders us. It moves us forward and holds us back. It is the purest definition of a necessary evil. We need it to bring change…sometimes at any cost.
And we’ve got the suffix as our human fail safe. There is an equivalent in every language.
If you consider life an experiment, then suffixes have become the control…the things that stay the same that we are constantly comparing ourselves to…striving to overcome…wishing to change…hoping to achieve…
Led by General “Est”…followed in battle by Colonel “Er” and his infantry…among them…”ing” and “ed” and “n’t”…wielding them to power the punch and soften the blow.
Biggest…bigger…oldest…older…youngest…younger…thinnest…thinner…fattest…fatter…wisest…wiser…strongest…stronger…weakest…weaker…don’t…can’t…won’t…
For such a competitive civilization, we have very thin skin and we behave like children. We get disappointed and disillusioned and we always seem surprised when we don’t agree with each other. And yet the reactions of children are the most honest. Maybe adults are what we become when we finally figure out that honest is a variable and open to interpretation…and manipulation…and abuse.
The world is complicated and there are no simple answers because the controls in this great experiment called life vary and sometimes madmen are in charge of the laboratories.
We all need to simplify. We can’t go back to cave days when communications were single syllable grunts of affirmation or denial…but we can be more positive and stand behind what we say and do without feeling the need to soften the blow or pull the punch.
Wish…dream…hope…overcome…strive…achieve…understand…accept…tolerate…
question…wonder…believe…know.
All of the stuff that happens after “I am” is what life is all about. That is your control.
Day two hundred and seventy six…make it the best day…start with “I am.”
Cynthia Neilson