As I look back . . .

Indeed time flies. Yet the valuable and numerous lessons along the way moves at a slow pace.
As another birthday advances I anxiously concede to the fact that really there isn’t much to write home about yet I excitedly anticipate a number of activities.  Actually there is so much to focus on because there are so many tattered loose ends to tie.  So as I embark on a new trail, as I turn on a new leaf…I look back!
I am grateful for a blessed action-packed life, a life full of lessons. For me, the one lesson that particularly stands out is this: the definition of an act lies in its end; you see whether an act is good or bad; right or wrong; genuine or bogus is not what matters, what matters is (I believe): what does this act(ion) bring out?  Therefore I have come to a conclusion that: acts are defined by their outcomes i.e. as things progress, they get clearer.
Over the past few years, I have formed a few beliefs on intentions, acts and results:
1. I firmly believe that acts can indeed be judged by their effect because no matter how concealed an act or intention is; its consequence and result inevitably and publicly self-display at the end of any gesture.  The riff raff that takes place in the middle is of no consequence. 
2. No matter how one-sidedly distorted a view may be presented at the beginning of a scheme or midway, in due course all things self-declare.
You see a prelude is easy to orchestrate, to decorate, to polish, to trim but not an outcome.  It is extremely hard for one to orchestrate how things end…because as things end the intention reveals itself. Towards the end of an act the intention stands stark-naked in the universal display window for everyone to see.
Most beginnings are easy to co-ordinate and plan: births, weddings, parties. One can see these coming, one can be alert and be on guard and prepare accordingly.  But a death for instance; it arrives unannounced.  So,
no matter how much time one can set aside towards planning, an end  will inevitable take its own form and shape.  So, hence I say that in most cases the post-overview of accounts truly highlight and expose where the treacherous twists and double-crossing curves were initially veiled and concealed.
Hence some cultures prefer to mourn when a baby is born and not when a person dies.  To me, these cultures (real or imagined) seem to displayed a wise and established approach to life.  Perhaps they realize that we are mortals, therefore we cannot possibly be capable of fully foreseeing the road ahead. 
How would we know if there are either thorns or blooms ahead? 
Therefore, perhaps the reason these cultures don’t celebrate ahead that which is coming is because they realize that just because one is certain of an advancing act, this does not necessarily expose the fashion or the manner, which a partcular act will end, so initially there isn’t much to celebrate.  These cultures do not boast about an unknown future, instead they celebrate the past and gratefully live in the present.
That for me, continues to be an outstanding lesson and it is for this reason that this year, my birthday will take a different form and shape as I look back … into the future to see how things will end – only then will I be able to say “it is well”.  William Shakespeare puts it simply: all’s well that ends well.

Talk about dream, they keep us going . . . !
#cultured approach#


Comments

3 responses to “As I look back . . .”

  1. "as I look back!…….the valuable lessons along the way are numerous"

    Life is itself a series of epehemral lessons, paradoxes and indeed some kind of "Cosmic Tragi-Comedy" demanding of us the spontaneity of a theater goer who experiences the joyful sorrow and compassionate self chastisement contemporaneously with the unfolding drama in which he is a part actor ( the success of the theatrical play depends on the audience)part audience (the play is performed for him)and part observer ( he can critique both actors and audience)all at once.Similarly life demands of us, the deep seated chimeric capability of being perpetrator, victim, judge,student and indeed curator of the museum pf our experiences. It is indeed this element that gives complexion and vitality (both positive and negative) to our very bitter-sweet existence as humans complete with our compassionate and dark sides! There are no answers, no lessons apart; we are them!

    Thus looking back is in this sense futile; looking for ends and beginnings (signs and meanings) that never existed in reality. Yet even I would swear these meanings (and feelings) are there,cruelly and exquisitely and seamlessly woven into the circular fabric of our very existence for the pleasure and amusement of who knows who?

    In this circular reality "looking back" is really looking back "into the future", some kind of an unforgiving void whose essence can not be apprehended, therefore beyond our comprehension.

    The valuable lessons are therefore neither in the past nor in the future, neither above nor below, neither in him nor in her (whoever that may be), neither blah blah blah……..but in this moment. And there is no moment without a being. And that is all that we can be sure of fully apprehending and comprehending this moment.

    So just breathe in and out. That is all the lesson we all need. In and out, in and out, in and …………that is all!

  2. Yes, I look back into the future – it is my drama: i write the script, audition, direct, observe, act and direct, critique, review the play. I am the audience who applauds it all.

    So yes, I close my eyes …and look!

    The irony is clear

  3. You seem to have read the white ink from my figurative paper. Perhaps we should co-write in future (oh you don't believe in "future"). We seem to be looking at the same direction; heading to the same destination…for now.
    Just mind your spelling though (if you dont mind me saying so….please don't write in a rush – there is no rush …as we breath in and out. lol you are funny but as I say – slow down, as you breath in and out, Niap!
    Where are you rushing to, if the present is all that matters to you? Don't slip away.

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