My friend MAS has a favorite saying from Deepak Chopra: “Life finds a way.” I do not know the context of the quote. I like the idea that the simple, unadorned thought communicates to me: “Don’t sweat it dude; life is powerful stuff, it will find a way.”
An Indomitable Desire to Live
Life is stubborn stuff. It adapts and creates new possibilities to make itself possible. It is as if it wills itself into being and continuing to be. Life finds a way. It does not let go, but looks for the options that take the disheartening situations and turn them to its advantage. Darwin called it “natural selection.” Adaptation, the willingness to change and modify one’s self, is what makes life possible. The only absolute is the will to be. The rest is context. If science teaches us anything about life it is that overspecialization leads to extinction. Niche species, for all their charm and beauty, are dependent upon one set of variables, one food source, one environment. They die out quickly as the situation changes. Soon they are supplanted by other species that can make the leap.
I wonder why we, as a people, have apotheosized a style of life and canonized its claims in language that is nearly liturgical. We forget that it was our willingness to move beyond a set perimeter that allowed us to develop and to create new things. Hardship only creates opportunity for creativity. We descend from predators. Predation assumes intelligence. Intelligence is predicated upon creativity. It is the ability to see and advantage and exploit it in a situation that seems hopeless that creates a lust to live that must be satisfied.
In the immortal words of Chumba Wamba, “I get knocked down, but I get up again/ain’t nothin’ gonna keep me down…” Life finds a way.
Moving Beyond the Past
It seems that the hardest port to disembark is memory. The dock lines seem not to completely be released as we set sail into the dark unknown of the future. All of our hopes and dreams, our fears and prejudices, our love and hatred follow in one form or another. Moving beyond the past does not mean a disengagement from the past. It does mean that it no longer becomes the determining factor in the trajectory of life. The Christian church called this redemption and forgiveness. Pity it could never really practice these cardinal virtues, seeking instead to dwell in sin and guilt. But that is another posting for another day. Forgiveness: there is a powerful concept. It is key to setting sail from the past into the reality of this moment.
Forgiveness is the recognition of falling short of the mark. It is that simple. We all miss the target, we all fail. We get up again and start over. Failure does not become our legacy or our destiny; it is the opportunity to create a new way that propels us into the future with is wondrous dreams and terrible nightmares. We move on. We admit our fault and make do to do better. Beyond this forgiveness is the recognition of the same in others. They fail us. They fall short. But they try again to fix the problem. There is the crux of the thing: it is not simply enabling the same behavior as destiny, it is moving beyond into a new thing. Throw off the lines and dare to face the future. This is the only way that anything can live.
History?
I am, by training and temperament, a historian. This means that I am a patient man that has listened to the past but will not be imprisoned by it. The past is the pavement on the road to the future. It makes clear how we will arrive, it is not the destination. I learn from the past. I’ve made mistakes and, hopefully, have learned from them. I am not a prisoner to how the past played out. Santayana was correct: we study history to avoid its repetition. But I would go beyond: we study history to fulfill its hope.
Personal history is part of my motivation with the Dancing Fool. It is a way to set markers and to see where I am going and where I have to correct my course. I looked back to a posting about a year ago. Last year at this time I wrote that I was “Rounding the Bend.” That semester presented problems but it was finally a success. It brought me to this moment. History is like the stream of karma: each moment touch the next leading us to the present and into the future. But this awareness of the future cannot be allowed to severe our ties to the now if we are to live authentically. I know this to be true for me.
Here and Now
I remember my ninth grade English teacher, Mr. Peterson. He asked us to write a series of “Here and Now” observations. That assignment was in summer, before school nearly 35 years ago. “Here and now I see…” was the assignment. It forced me to begin to see, not merely to look at, my environment. It began the understanding that this moment is all that I really have. The past is memory, the future a dream. I live in my perception of the now. It is all I have. It is the moment that has to be embraced.
This realization allowed me to see that a life well lived in this moment makes for a life authentically lived. And it is true: Life finds a way…
Ah, but I am only a fool…
