Putting Things Off
Most of the time, preparation and waiting is just yourself saying ... It's never gonna happen.
Sometime in the 90s, I attended a lecture by Salman Rushdie. Like everyone, I was curious about the man, about the Fatwa put on his head, about what he had to say to us in this world, then and now. It is with sadness that I heard about his recent attack and injury.
It was a great lecture. I have read a lot of Rushdie, his essays always were poignant, well-argued, direct but nuanced. I’ve carried a few of these collections around the world with me and dip into them when, especially when, I need to be reminded about our fundamental freedoms when I need warmth from the always shining light of the enlightenment.
One thing that always stayed with me, was the following quote. It is wise, and profound.
Think about the most common approach towards our elderly years - retirement. We stuff money away, build our 401ks, work at jobs, day in and day out which scorch our souls, we dream of the day, plan for the day when we’ll do what we want and can put our feet up.
Yet, things almost never happen like this. After so many years of training our mind and body in the nature of want, desire, and fear of the future. We become captive to it. We can’t “relax” and enjoy our later years - we’ve become the thing we wanted to conquer. We can’t enjoy our later years, we need now to continue to get up, do soulless stuff, just to eke out any happiness from life, our short time left.
This applies to so much else of “life”. Our lives teach us who we are.
“He not busy living here and now, is busy dying.” - paraphrasing Dylan
It applies too, to society and nations. It’s why change, progress, is so hard to make despite it being so obvious what kind of world we want to live in. Our current societal “life” teaches us who we are and trains us in the art of being what we don’t want to be. How? By creating the illusion, holding out the carrot in front of our nose that “heaven”, the society we desire, is in some indeterminable future we are marching towards. It was the key driver for the communists - asking everyone to sacrifice for the bright future, the crowning future of a world where everyone is living in equality, without need. Malarkey. But it works this same way in liberal democratic societies, dictatorships, and all nation-states. Religions too. Our time worshipping prevents any kind of change other than the imagined one we carry in our heads while we suffer in the here and now.
Essentially, we are ruled by our subconsciousness - it tricks us into considering happiness as something we need to earn, to gain, to reach, to travel towards. It’s also the trick of many self-help books and gurus. I’m telling you, don’t believe this lie. Don’t put things off, if they truly are YOU. Don’t be one of the millions sold a kettle of fish.
Be careful what you do temporarily. It might just turn out to be permanent. More often it will.
Oh me too. I often write just to speak to myself and teach myself. Sounds weird but it is what it is.
My Sunday morning sermon. Thing I need to hear again.