RESISTING IRRELEVANCE
… requires that we be relevant
Saturday June 28, 2014
Hundred years, since war to end them all.
Thousands more years since wisdom began circulating.
Has much been learned?
Better wars (ha!), better thought (hmm?), better life (?).
My life is completely out of anyone else’s control.
I have only a vague idea of my destination.
My journey, however, will be a feast.
Life-expedition, horns blaring, sometimes tranquility, many pieces and peace of mind laying side by side, giddy-up youth every day, rich conversations, arguments, dialogue.
For you?
Up to you!
Unless you let it be up to me. Then your life won’t be your own.
True for all of us.
Still, I have so many reminders where a small change of circumstance, a small shift in emotional balance or a small change of financial circumstance made the difference between have spirits lifted and having no spirit at all.
Freud said, “love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness”.
Life is milestones, chapters, road signs – never over until we are.
I’m amazed, not just where I live, but by people the world over (perhaps just in the over-indulged parts) so many – so fixated, retirement or semi-stopping as if that celebrated something great rather than end-of-life prison it becomes for lives which have not yet run their fullest coarse.
Rivers teach that great lesson.
They overflow their banks, making new land, altering landscapes, re-shaping history by sculpting landscape into an unimagined future …
Can’t people overflow their banks too?
Ordinary folks, me and you, can’t we do that?
No better place than my place in this world if I make it so, right here, inside me. I’m here already, feeling quite at home.
It is, it appears, all up to me to learn more, be more, do more, and I must hurry.
Hourglass sand flowing without hesitation in all kinds of weather, all year long, day and night, every day, every night.
Philosophers remind us, any road will do if we don’t know where we are going. Any stop will do if we don’t have a goal or destination.
Others say, best way to succeed is where we are with what we’ve got.
Still, with so many centuries of wisdom available to us all – how many of us are happy with how things are, with how are lives are?
I am overtaken by the rich man’s car in traffic, so sleek and shiny. I drive around a corner and see a poor man sleeping in a box. There is so little distance or difference between us all. Still, we each sit on our own bottom, we each breathe the same air, we each struggle to make our own life better. Some among us, but not many, struggle to make someone else’s life better. Mostly we selfishly hoard our treasured circumstances. And for what? We’ll all be just as dead in fifty years, we’ll all be just as irrelevant when we are gone and just as forgotten.
I take comfort in believing words survive.
Our thoughts, put down somewhere, are not likely to be immortal – in part because so many wise things have been said before – but wouldn’t it be a nice remembering of ourselves if something of us survived through time, as if we were still watching from the sidelines many generations from now?
Mark Kolke
196,856
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 12C / 54F, scattered clouds, nice breeze – amazing how empty streets change character when otherwise decent people (appearance of driver, type and condition of car) drive like idiots and nearly wipe out the foliage – it seemed too early in the day, some strange behaviour shook the tranquility of this morning … perhaps as it might have 100 years ago
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Congratulations my friend. Great to hear the buoyant news. By now you have discovered that every hill is temporary, and the only way to get to the next hill is through the valley. I loved reading the Coles notes version of the “15 year chapter” (of course I have seen some pieces of the full text as well). Take a deep breath; keep calm and carry on! KK, Calgary, AB
After reading today's musings I think the title should be, "A Life Well Lived" or "Passionately Living Life" or even "A Road Well Travelled". You have done well my friend; enjoying the joys and surviving the hurtles. It is all part and parcel of what we call 'life'. GW, Bon Wier, Tx.
New start Mark., PL, Calgary, AB
Keep the good stuff coming. I enjoy reading your stuff! Have a nice weekend!, RQ, New Jersey
Hi Mark Please keep me on your Mark's Musings email list. NJ, Calgary, AB
I Opt In, Thank you. RG, Campbellville, ON
Hi Mark, No changes & please keep me on the list. Thanks, MC … north of Cochrane somewhere
Hi Mark – Yes, I want to receive your eMail communications. Regards, MK, Calgary, AB
Hi Mark. Please continue to send me good things, BT, Calgary, AB
Your writing is always good. It is just that some times you say it all and no response is necessary. So I guess when that happens I should at least respond with an "Atta boy", eh? I am better than I deserve. Going through physical therapy and learning to walk properly again. Not such an easy task after a year and a half of 'walker hopping'. It is a painful process retraining muscles that have become complacent with wrong thinking. But, I am endeavoring to persevere and finding joy in the fact that every session it gets a little bit better. Garden is coming in gang busters and I have started canning as we harvest. Sustainability is the name of the game these days. Waiting for our order of two turkeys to come in and watching the ducks and chickens grow into big birds. All fun and very rewarding. Michael killed the first water moccasin in our pond behind the house. Comes with the territory unfortunately. Love the country but not all the critters that were here before we got here. Wonder if that was the thinking as the pioneers headed west. I do so love to hear about Gusta. I have always been such a lover of dogs and am amazed at their loyalty and intuition to our spirits. Happy trails to you until we chat again, GW, Bon Wier, TX
