In our arrogance we often think we know the true nature of things but I am increasingly sure that we can only know life’s details -the small stuff- that we encounter. Perhaps it’s because all important tips are more magic than mathematics… that all essential elements of our lives are beyond simple definition and certainty. A friend once put me through an exercise that was very revealing. He handed me a stack of index cards and challenged me to define the concepts he would put forth for consideration.
The first one was love. As I tried to define love in the briefest and most cogent way I could come up with, I found my head spinning and my pen idle. No definition was deep enough; no simple definition suggested itself. I could grasp many of the outward signs of love from the wedding vow to the four o’clock feeding but the nature of love itself defied description. As Plato said, “at the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” They did not become analytical and at the end of the day no certainty was available.
His next challenge was happiness. Again, I was stumped, not knowing why certain things made me happy at one time and miserable another. Happiness that arises from having enough was also elusive since I have been taught by my culture that I never have enough. Again, my attempts to define were a total failure. After all happiness is a state of being not a thing that lends itself to description or analysis. Another failure.
As the words and concepts-and my failures-piled up, I began to realize that all of life’s most important things defy description and that the business of living is living. Our existentialist buddy, Albert Camus said it well “you all never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
So we are free. Free for speculation and free from certainty. We are free to dance, fall in love and do all the wonderful things that defy description. Turn up the music.
Olio Folio 