Our passage through life is one of the few things in life that unite us. We all, from the mighty King to the most abject pauper share the same passage. Okay, lets take a look at this passage.
How are our first couple of years upon downtown planet earth? We are, each and everyone of us helpless, no, completely and totally helpless and I mean each and every one of us. Okay, in later life we may well become masters of the universe, or at least the big, or little corner of the universe that we find ourselves in, but those first couple of years? Forget it, hopeless, helpless, totally dependent upon others and incapable of even controlling even our bodily functions!
What is the next phase of the adventure that we all, independent of circumstance share? Let's say the years between 5 and ten. We've learned to walk and even talk and wow, what a world of wonder we find ourselves within. Mountains that seem to touch the sky, forests that seem to stretch forever and joy of joys, places where the land and sea unite and we can feel both and at the same time!
During the next phase, let's say ten to fifteen those simple joys begin to fade, adulthood impinges upon those simple joys, they begin to fade into insignificance, the stuff of childhood. The material begins to raise its ugly head and the need to make it (make what exactly is something we begin to question later) estimates greater importance. If that were not enough to have to deal with, we discover sex and or, the opposite sex.
Lets fast forward to the next phase, sometimes one of the hardest, say fifteen to twenty five. For many this is where realites bites. We discover that actually we did not invent sex and that even our parents discovered it, gross or what! If that were not enough, we discover that the boy, or girl we fancy has their own agenda, even worse, it might differ to ours, problem. Equally, during this period we find that making it on the World stage is not so easy and realize that we are engaged within a race, a human race, destination, unknown and against eight billion competitors, oh oh.
By the time we enter the next phase, say twenty five to forty, many of us have lost our sparkle and begin to doubt that the sky is the limit, at least for us. During this phase we often marry, sometimes not the girl, or boy of our dreams, but someone that will have us. Equally, during this period we often dramatically hold in our aspirations. Maybe we will not become Kings or Queens, leaders within our chosen field, or even particularly successful.
Through a quirk of fate, that is when most of us create families. Yes during a period when many are at our most disillusioned, even frustrated by our lack of progress in achieving our goals, or finding Mr, or Mrs right to marry, we choose to procreate, ironic, no?
The next phase, forty to sixty, this is for many an easier period. We have come to accept our limitations (mistakenly), given up on reaching for the moon and have decreed that ever lasting love is the stuff of romantics. No, being able to rub along with whoever we happen to be with will do nicely and sex on Fridays and Tuesdays looks to scratch the itch.
Sixty to eighty, things become clearer, the ways of man and society it become patently clear, are far from perfect and even further from any form of paradise on earth. No, we realize and have grown to accept inequality and on an eye watering scale and perhaps unwittingly have encouraged both greed and selfishness.
What should we make of all this? Some might suggest that our creator got it wrong and even that our evolutionary process is at fault, even back to front, that we gain wisdom only when we are incapable of using it.
I disagree, the path that we each tread is in fact perfect and as it should be. No, if there is a fault it lies within the evolutionary path that we have accepted as the norm. If only we could see, but that is the problem, we can not. Yes we were gifted eyes, but have limited their potential as we have allowed our minds to become ever narrower.
Our passage through life is as perfect as it could ever be, the only problem is us, we allowed ourselves to wander into a maze of one dynamic vision and even worse, accept it as normality. Terrence Aubrey