What are we holding on to? We clutch at empty air, like how we grab at straws. Perhaps we will have it for a little while, but it often slips out of our grasp.
We’re fearful about the present because when we fail, we think that we’re not enough. We worry about the future, because we can’t control the outcomes. Nostalgia sweeps in when we think about the ‘good old days’ and romanticize our past experiences.
You know, the chase for happiness is a little ridiculous. To pursue something means that you set expectations. When we don’t achieve it, will we break? Even when we achieve our heart’s desire, is it a life-long satisfaction? Most of us move on in search of the next great thing. The next adventure, our next new start and end, that next person. The next project, the next label of success we use to define ourselves.
The reality is that the world we live in isn’t permanent. Even though many aspects of our surroundings are tangible and physical, they’re not built to last. Consider the mobile phones we use daily. They last a couple of years at best.
Likewise, many things in life are temporary. Phases in life don’t last a life span. Situations come and go, and we always have new problems. Neither do our material possessions — the money we hoard for a better future, that next educational paper we strive to excel, the next improvement at our job.
Feelings — we lose them. Memories — we forget them. People don’t quite last, either. Either the relationships expire, or the person does. Through the funny tricks of time, our minds fail us and others.
When our security and purpose in life are only found in the things of this world, we will find life crippling and purposeless when these things change.
We live in a broken world, because humanity is fundamentally messed up. How can we achieve long-lasting happiness in a world such as this? Are we supposed to ‘live our best life’ and ‘be yourself’ on our limited human terms? Considering our conflicting ambitions where we all desire to have our way, it’s clear why the world is in this state.
In the end, all we’re left with is grief and tears. And what then?
