... is not that life doesn't orient itself towards ends. The problem is that an obsessive fixation on ends, and goals over processes, results in an anxiety over uncertainty and a fear that things will not turn out as we would like. Also, it ignores the fact that life doesn't stop moving - that the world is engaged in a constant process of becoming. Even when we reach a goal, there is more work to be done, more life to be lived. There is no "Happy Ever After" - and thank the gods for that!
Thanks to Mike Wesch for pointing me to this video, and for reminding me of the greatness of Alan Watts!
1 comment:
Thanks Jeremy,
I am struggling with this all the time because I keep hearing how I have to be something when I grow up. And, being the Bohemian that I am I ask in retort: when do you think I will be grown up?
I know that this is true. Life is a process, kinda like a movie and if you are lucky it is more like Grease than one of those black and white musicals with the gratuitous musical interruption. [i love them. but I do not want to live them]
And I annoy the jebus out of people who keep trying to make my salvation road long and boring like a subway through an Iowa cornfield. I prefer long and winding [cue the cute Beattle] myself.
I also intend to share this on facebook. Thanks again. I hope Alan Watts can get through some of these thick skulls.
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