AT LEAST WE DIDN'T DIE

Sometimes when you are not sure what the muse wants and it’s hard to know where to begin. I envy writers who have their stories mapped out from beginning to end and all they have to do is flesh out the ideas already organized. Ive never been good at that. What I get are ideas and feelings that pass through in the moment like a soaring bird’s shadow. When I get that invitation I have to run with it or let it go. That is when I try to imagine where it came from (the story) and where it wants me to go with it. Everything has its own story but the dots all connect, everything is interconnected. 

Today’s story has been compounded by unexpected, difficult circumstances and my part in it is to tread that narrow way between when and how to assist and staying out of the way. As one struggle gives way to another there are timely pauses to reflect and I don’t need a counselor to tell me, “You are too old to be doing this.” Then familiar quotes that never loses their way, never fall on deaf ears, they come back around. “Let us rise up and be thankful for if we didn’t learn a lot today at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so let us be thankful.” Then, like potato chips, one quote leads to another. Joseph Campbell cuts straight to the quick; “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. The Warrior’s approach is to say, ‘Yes’  to life: ‘Yea’ to it all.” 

For Jospeh Campbell the Warrior and the Hero (with a thousand faces) are effectively the same character, just at different stages. One is forward leaning while the other is more reflective. It works the same for everyone whether the path you follow takes you around the world or never goes beyond the garden gate. The Warrior has an insatiable appetite for adventure if you will. It’s about process much more than outcome. Even though we are supposed to move through stages we retain remnants of the former after all. Without them one’s backstory would read like a boiled cabbage recipe. The Buddhist-like quote is not from the Buddha himself but consistent with that eastern disposition and he would like it. I take comfort in the two together. 

Currently as a spectator-ally my part in the day’s trajectory is limited to patient understanding and moral support. Barbara Streisand recorded a song in the 1990’s titled, If I Could. It comes from a parent’s perspective about children who have moved on, beyond her reach. To resolve her own reservations she mouths the words; If I could, I would try to shield your innocence from time, but that part of life I gave you isn’t mine . . . It’s all she can do. It’s all I can do. 

I didn’t know this was where the muse was taking me but here we are. This growing old can be bittersweet and be thankful for the sweet part, at least we didn’t die. I am still curious and I still have hopes, mostly for loved ones but some yet for myself as well. I don’t have much faith in Faith but my own, personal little dot is connected to all the other dots and I owe them something. John Muir (famous naturalist) is credited with many similar versions of this quote: “Try to tug on anything at all and you find it is connected to everything else in the Universe.” Another version says; “. . . and the whole Universe tugs back.” I take comfort in Muir’s words too. Maybe the most important part of telling a story is knowing when to stop.