stars and shrinking

——-

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I bet they’d live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realize there are more important things than what people do all day.”

Calvin and Hobbes

——-

Unfortunately, it seems like we focus a shitload on what we do every day, i.e., the ‘doing’ in Life.

Unfortunately, while Life doesn’t force us to do this, it certainly encourages us to do so.

Life does this by throwing obstacles and things to do and responsibility in front of us seemingly as we take each step into the day. Because Life does this it seems impossible to do anything BUT think what we do all day as the most important thing.

Look. I am not here to suggest what we do each day isn’t important.

Well.

Maybe I am just thinking about it.

Thinking about it because I worry it is unhealthy reductionism. In other words, it is shrinking.

Shrinking before the immensity of Life.

Uhm.

Immensity of life.

The sheer onslaught of everything day-to-day DOES seem immense. Given that, let’s face it, it is easy to shrink before it.

By shrinking, day to day, surprisingly, is actually easier for us to face everything. I am not suggesting it is less difficult; just easier. It shrinks things down to, well, things.

Things to do.

Things to say.

Things to check off on a list.

Things to put on a list.

There is never a shortage of ‘things.’

We cram all those things into Life and Life is, well, immense. Immense in its intangible and vagueness.

I imagine I am suggesting we don’t <or at least make the attempt> shrink from purpose in Life simply using ‘what we do in daily life’ as an excuse. Its not a fear of being ‘too much’, but rather it is a survival tactic.

To be clear, that whole individual ‘purpose in Life’ is tricky thing because ‘purpose’ tends to be vague.

Generally speaking it just comes down to ‘doing good (things)’ which benefit beyond your own doing self, i.e., others reap some benefits.

Yikes.

But does that mean doing good for whomever is in front of you at the expense of someone else? Or doing a greater good for the planet at the expense of someone in front of you?

Yikes <again> … yes … those choices are real.

Simplistically, in facing the immensity of Life, most of us try to believe it is simply ‘doing the right thing.’ But sometimes the right thing for you, or from your perspective, is the wrong thing from someone else.

It is ‘having a good heart’ <meaning well>. But does that absolve you from meaning well, but still causing harm because meaning well sometimes means not making the hard decision.

Or sometimes it does. Meaning well can still have some unfortunate consequences to some people.

Which leads me to suggest individual purpose, to be meaningful, is a combination of intangible higher order type stuff with some tangible daily <or weekly> decisions and choices.

You ‘think’ something and ‘do’ some other things.

And it is not easy not just because it forces you to make some choices but also because, well, Life is immense..

And it is not easy on top of what you do in your daily lives.

I do believe most of us realize there are an infinite amount of ‘bigger things’ to be done.

I do believe most of us realize there are more important things than what people do all day.

Uhm. I also believe most of us shrink before the immensity of Life.

And I do not mean that as a criticism just as something that is normal human behavior <or reaction to what is in Life>.

I don’t have answers here. Just questions. As in questioning whether I pay enough attention to things beyond what people, and I, do all day.

——

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.”
E.E. Cummings

——–

I imagine I believe that while I do not have the answer today, if I keep asking the questions maybe I will get closer to an answer tomorrow or in some day after that.

I kind of think looking at the stars helps a bit to remind us to question and to think about the immensity of it all.

Ponder.