Pontification

On a daily basis each of us is faced with the good, the bad and the ugly elements of life unless one makes the personal choice to remain blissfully ignorant.  I must admit that for a significant period of time I chose the latter.   In recent years, however, I have become more informed, more enlightened and more involved.  As a result I have become less tolerant and, consequently, less optimistic.  I worry over and fixate on way too many things that ultimately I cannot change.   Some of those things are superbly summed up in a few of my favorite quotes.  Allow me to share…

• Many who believe that they have kind hearts actually only have weak nerves.
• Rules are for those lacking the courage to make their own.
• All really intelligent men recognize that the moment is everything.
• The arc of the universe is great and it always bends toward justice.
• The older we get the higher the bar is raised.
• A “no” uttered with deepest conviction is better that a “yes” uttered merely to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
• Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.
• If we stay alert to the possibilities we will all be led through our own mistakes toward our own moments of grace.
• The only difference between a rut and a grave is dimension.
• The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you will get less than that for which you settled.
• People seldom do what they believe in…they do what is convenient and then repent.
• Principles only mean something if you stick with them.
• Behind every great woman is herself.

And last but not least, one that covers all the bases…

• Could’ve, would’ve and should’ve are all laments of the spineless.  The strong declare I can, I will and I shall.

     Nietzche once said, “Stare long enough into the dark abyss and the abyss will eventually stare back.”  His words lend themselves perfectly to the current human condition.  All it takes is one day’s exposure to print and visual media to affirm the fact that mankind has upgraded itself to a first class, one way ticket to hell, fire and damnation.  Not only is the darkness staring back…it is laying seige.  The seven deadly sins have given birth to profit from tragedy, violence for the benefit of You Tube and organized criminal religion.  Free will at its finest has spawned a new and improved evil of the 21st century…a diabolical demon on crack.  Not only are the founding fathers turning over in their graves, but they are frantically clawing their way toward the earth’s core to distance themselves from us.  Under the guise of evolution we have become less humane, increasingly desensitized  and demoralized to catastrophic proportions.  Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll have morphed into preversion, biological warfare and a lethal song of suffering and strife.  Oh what a tangled web we weave!

     I am confident that I do not stand alone in my views on the present day state of the universe.  Edmund Brooke declared, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing” and Dean Koontz proports a more modern day summation…”The given world dazzles with wonder, poetry and purpose.  The man-made world is a perverse realm of ego and envy where power-mad cynics make false idols of themselves and where the meek have no inheritance.”  I’d venture to guess that when the long-awaited day of judgement arrives the meek will find themselves blessed to have forfeit inheritance of this now dispoiled and defiled Earth.  One can hope that in its stead awaits the prophesied afterlife of light, hope and glorified salvation…one in which we do not blind ourselves to truth or wander catatonically down roads that lead nowhere but to eternal darkness.

I am sure many of you reading this will sympathize to some extent with the fact that I spent most of my Sunday at home recovering from an overdose of fun on both Friday and Saturday nights. My activity of choice on days when the body is worn to the extreme is movie watching. I retreat to my couch with a few choice snacks or some hair of the dog that bit me and break out a favorite horror flick or two for entertainment. On rare occasions I opt for a drama or the cheesy chick flick but didn’t need nor want the sap today. It was Sunday’s cinematic mini-marathon that got me to thinking…life could actually be thought of as a movie in which each of us plays lead role. Allow me to elaborate.

Women would most certainly see themselves as starring in a fantasy romance. Men, on the other hand, would probably envision starring in an action adventure epic. There are those individuals that would be living “la vida loca” of a Broadway musical. The rebels among us would likely choose to be the badass in an exploitation B movie or in some cases the “cable man” in a spicy adult picture. The lives of some mirror experimental student art films that make no sense. Intellectuals tend to live documentaries–serious and educational—while the cognitively challenged undoubtedly mimic screwball comedies. A select few achieve blockbuster status while a disproportionately higher number fail due to funding deficits.

Still not convinced? Consider this…we spend most of our lives marketing in a society where image rules tyrannically. There is makeup, hair, diet, exercise, the charm, the attitude, the pose and the strut…all of it culminating in “the look”. Each of us is a virtual walking billboard advertising ourselves…a preview of the coming attraction. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, production is in disarray—we’re over budget, do poorly in test screenings and gradually become creatively stagnant. We endlessly tinker and touch up, revise, edit and tailor ourselves to please a target audience. Collectively it all constitutes our personal quest for a happy ending.

After a bit of self-examination and reflection I am unable to place my life into one solitary genre. I do know that I am continuously struggling to maintain artistic control; I throw Prima Donna tantrums and on occasion I pout in my personal trailer when I don’t get my way. It’s an inner conflict deeply rooted in what ultimately decides the true significance of our existence…Does one aspire to be a palatable crowd-pleaser catering to the mainstream or something true to self no matter what anyone else wants or says?

The value each of us places on ourselves as human beings

is determined solely by the work we do to become one.

After awhile you begin to learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul… 

You learn that love doesn’t mean leaning and togetherness doesn’t equal security… You learn that kisses aren’t contracts and presents aren’t promises… 

You learn to accept your defeats with the grace of a woman and not the grief of a child… You learn to build all of your roads on today because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain and futures have a way of falling down mid-flight… 

You learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much… You learn that you really can endure… 

You learn that you truly are strong… With each new day… 

With even the smallest leap of faith… You learn.