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| MY LONGTIME LONG-DISTANCE RUNNING MATE |
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Pozzo, one of the characters in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, states that “the tears of the world are a constant quantity.” Beckett’s play is most certainly one of despair. In my early English Literature days at the University of Regina, Waiting for Godot was presented in class as an investigation of philosophical voids, human tribulations, and human values. It does seem that somewhere there are always people in misery. And it does seem that there is always something to cry about. Was Pozzo right? Did he know that to live is to suffer is the skinny of Zen?
Ah
Zen! I like reading Zen stuff. And when I do it always prompts me to think
about and write about Evolutionary Psychology, Existentialism,
and my favorite, Existential Dread. Yes. Sometimes finding one’s purpose in a
world seemingly filled with chaos seems fruitless. Yes. Searching for meaning
seems next to impossible. And I am certainly not alone in this type of thought.
Burt
Bacharach wrote a song about it:
"ALFIE"
What’s it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about when you sort it out, Alfie?
Peggy
Lee sang about it:
"IS
THAT ALL THERE IS"
Is that all there is?
If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s bring out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is.
Yes and alas, readers. That is all there is.
Factoid: I know the end of all our stories, which is we are all going to die.
And I know, too, the end of humanity, at least humanity here on Earth. The sun
will eventually burn out and by the time it does all of humanity will be
residing elsewhere, tenants on some faraway planet in another solar system.
But
in the meanwhile, what is one to do?!
To
me the answer is simple. To find any meaning in our lives, each of us needs to serve
ourselves a life sentence, or maybe many life sentences served consecutively (some
maybe concurrently). That is what one is to do! To accomplish this, we need guidance
and wisdom from people in the past. Let me start with a couple of 19th-century
Existential philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Kierkegaard
wrote that the meaning of life is not a fixed, objective truth to be discovered,
but rather a personal and subjected reality to be created by oneself via free
and passionate choices. Nietzsche wrote that life, by itself, has no inherent
or universal significance, because the world is only characterized through
chaos and suffering. Nietzsche insisted that must act as self-creators, finding
our life meaning via authenticity and embracing life’s challenges.
Allow
me to continue such thought by evoking a couple of 20th-century
French thinkers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.
According
to Sartre, life has no inherent, pre-defined meaning, but we can define
ourselves through our freedom to make choices. Camus, too, insisted that life
has no inherent, pre-defined meaning. He coined this concept, “the Absurd.” Both
Sartre and Camus agreed that we are condemned to be free, free to create our
own purpose in life, despite the universe being indifferent and absurd.
Russian
novelist, Fyodor Dostoevsky, stated the obvious, that life is a mystery, and
the best way to discover any meaning for is to embrace it through love, action,
and spiritual commitment.
German
phenomenologist, Martin Heidegger, believed that facing the certainty of death will
break the absurdity of one’s everyday, routine life. Through accepting that life
is a finite experience, Heidegger thought that we should stop wasting time and
start living a deliberate design.
And
hence, my notion that we assign to ourselves a life sentence or two or three or
more to be served consecutively, and perhaps concurrently on occasion.
No
matter your station, be you a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn or a
king (from the song, “That’s Life”), or no matter your religion, be you a Catholic, a
Hindu, and Atheist, a Jain, a Buddhist, a Baptist, or a Jew (from the song, “Universal
Soldier”), if you are breathing you are midway into your personal story.
And for those of us who decide to simply seek peace and pleasure as best we
can, we are free to create personal moments by writing our own life sentences
between the sufferings all of us at one time, or sometime, or all the time,
endure.
Here
are some of the life sentences I have written and served over my adulthood
years:
“I
am going to be a scuba diver.” At 22 years of age, I completed the
National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) course at Caribou
College in Kamloops, British Columbia. Afterward, I was a participant in the
very first Scuba Bronze course offered by the Royal Life Saving Society
(RLSS). I still dive, my last being at Elkwater Lake, Alberta, two summers ago.
“I
am going to be a swimming instructor.” During my undergraduate years at the
University of Regina, I was listed as an English Literature major with a
Physical Education minor. Factoid: The only Physical Education classes I took
were Swimming 110 (introduction to swimming), Swimming 210 (bronze medallion
qualifications), and Swimming 310 (instructor level qualifications). At 26
years of age, I began teaching swimming and springboard diving (I was also on
the university diving team) and continued to do so at the Regina YMCA for a
dozen or more years.
“I
am going to be a writer.” I became a published author at 34 years old with my
first book, A WISHBONE EPISTOLARY, published in 1985 (University of Toronto).
My second book, QUEST FOR BLACK BEACH, was published in 2023 (Wood Dragon
Books) when I was 72 years old! Also, this blog you are reading has been around
for many years and has a readership in 152 countries to date!
“I
am going to run a marathon.” I started running in 1977 after reading The
Complete Book of Running by Jim Fixx. And after completing 13
half-marathons, at 38 years of age I officially ran and completed a full 26.2-mile
marathon in 1989.
“I
am going into private practice.” At 56 years of age, while teaching as a sessional instructor of Psychology at the University of Regina, I quit my high school job and opened my counselling practice. I
began that practice as a Reality Therapist, then converted to being a Solution-Focused Therapist to accommodate an agency contract,
then to being Cognitive Behavioral Therapist, to accommodate yet another agency contract. Currently, I am exclusively a
Hypnotherapist.
“I
am going to be a guitar busker.” The summer I turned 58 years old, I
convinced my second oldest son to accompany me on a buskation to Victoria,
British Columbia. And what a glorious summer of busking that was! Since then, I
have been a planetary busker in such cities as Amsterdam in The Netherlands,
Limerick and Dublin in Ireland, and Marrakech in Morocco.
“I
am going to be a ski instructor.” My first time on alpine skis was at White
Track Ski Resort, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in 1972, and I have been skiing ever
since. At long last at 72 years old, I was certified as a Level 1 ski instructor
with the CANADIAN SKI INSTRUCTORS’ ALLIANCE (CSIA). I taught skiing at Mission
Ridge Ski Resort all last winter, and half the winter before that.
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| CHILLAXING ON THE HILL |
“I am going to be a professional caricaturist.” Over my travels, wherever I have busked on the street with my guitar (The Netherlands, Ireland, Morocco, and Canada) I have also busked with my pencil and sketchpad. Last summer I was the designated caricaturist at a few country fairs, Manitou Beach, SK, Old Wives Lake, SK, Limerick, SK, being some examples. Also, I’ve drawn caricatures people Kelowna and Kamloops and Vancouver, British Columbia.
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| I LOVE BEING A PROFESSIONAL CARICATURIST |
In summary of this, no matter if we are begging, busking, or banking, all our stories have the same ending. Whether we are redbrick or royalty, all our stories have the same ending. We are all going to die. And until that time comes, if you bethink the world is going to give you the life you want you are dead wrong. Know this. No matter the season of our life, even in autumn or winter of our life, age is no excuse to be chapfallen.
There is no reason for to act dead until we are dead.
SENTENCE YOURSELF,
SO TO NOT INCARCERATE YOURSELF,
FOR LIFE!
