ROCKS AND HILLS
Friday, July 29, 2022
Making sense of things is hard.
When we are young, it’s easy because there is less to debate and we had fewer variables – because our naïve youthful heads are empty, not clogged with memories and experience, and our ‘things’ are a short list of things that aren’t humming like a well-oiled piece of machinery.
Making sense of things later in life becomes incrementally more complex. Yet, we think we are incrementally better equipped to separate the merely complicated from the multi-dimensional ball of haywire inside our heads and inside everyone else’s head. And we trip over ourselves …
Impatience is expected of the young and zealous because they are young and zealous. Later in life, our impatience grows from different roots. We focus more on things we can actually care passionately about and let the chest-thumping younger ones take over pushing medium-sized rocks up medium sized hills.
We have to focus on fewer rocks to find the ones that need pushing no matter how steep the hill is because that’s the hill worth dying on, and we don’t have time or patience for things we aren’t committed to investing all our energy to get the job done.
Reader feedback:
Nice piece today , Mark, RH, Calgary, AB
Thank you Mark. Human progress has been disappointing. Imagine 4000 years ago an ancient world without drug addiction centres, mental health support systems and food banks. There is ample proof that our industrialization and technological advancements have corrupted this unique planet we call home. Current politicians should appreciate our aboriginal/first nations for their wisdom; consider how each decision impacts the next seven generations (about 140 years). the long view - the landscape, JR, Calgary, AB
Simply marvelous, this musing’s: descriptions, revelations, emotion, challenges to readers. Thank you! And…yay for you and Hazel!, SF, Lethbridge, AB