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Writer's pictureJake McNairn

A Fool can learn

The thought that things happen for reasons unseen, or not understood, is in my view, incorrectly supposing some reasoning for any one thing occurring--I believe this to be false--no one thing is without meaning, but by the very same right all things are devoid of it. The truth of human experience lies in the connections we foster, ideas we bring to life, the meaning we seek to assign to it. It is not hubris to say we dictate our own--quite the opposite; it recognizes the chaotic disorder innate to our existing and hence the crucial but futile attempt at drawing anything from it. But to live without meaning is not to live without purpose--to hold that, to faithfully play our roles is to fulfill our cog's duty, and to dream, to aspire, to create, to live through further complexity, surely if doubted or unseen before, surely in this can one find meaning, be it entirely dependent upon one's desires. The desire for meaning is indeed human, and indeed shapes purpose in turn.

Perhaps this is all too reductive and dismissive of the further complexities in each our lives; for we say, how are coincidences explained? Acts of God? Impossibly beat probabilities? Perhaps they will never be understood in the academic sense, and instead should continue to feed our ideas of meaning, our magical view of things once lost in part to fleeting sense of childhood. Like all facets of life, we ought never to live in absolutes, and so an entirely logical or magical view of the world should absolutely be rejected; to subscribe to either in absolution is to rob oneself of a full human experience.

There exists three fools: the logical fool, who in his hubris denies all he cannot understand, the magical fool who makes nonsense of all concrete, and the nonpartisan fool who denies all in the face of overwhelming evidence. For they lack soul, they lack reasoning and they lack justification. Thankfully some fools can learn.

So far as I can tell, joy comes from peace above all else--a reasonable sense of acceptance and desire to improve within realistic means. It seems to me life ought to be lived through nuances, middle grounds, in healthy moderation. This poses the great challenge; that of control and accountability within constructive means. And as exhaustively stated by philosophers of old, it all takes knowing oneself and the world around you.


~~~


Joy robs us of sorrow, and sorrow of joy.

Acclimation yet the thief of all things.

Oscillations the dictator of balance.

Disorder and chaos the author,

and we the editor.

If only we could rewrite whole chapters, we would be bound to overwrite our future.


~~~


At the end of it all, we'll ask not what we did, but only if more could be done and in what way better. And for as fruitful as that endeavor may prove, how empty the feeling, how rejected the hope, and endless the journey, and we convince ourselves the trip was somehow well worth living in spite of the cracks and creases marking our love letter to life, how that adds character and paints naught but a complete picture, perfect by its own right.

How unfair the prosecution of a crow for learning flight. How sightless the hunger in a bountiful room. And how hapless we all are to trip over our own feet. Despite all that, how melancholy to stifle laughter at the whole of it all. The trip is absurd, and the fall meant to be, but who is really to say? The only tragedy to come would be cordoning off one's heart, trimming bit by bit until a hollow, broken shell remains.

How then can I reasonably take steps toward stabilizing my mood, to feel level, to numb in some sense reality? Balance rules all; to re-establish a proper baseline, to save one's own life, such measures are reasonable, and great clarity for so long as needed, for a time desired. To be humane is to approach things foremost feeling, second-most logical, that above all else with compassion. To challenge ourselves truly is to do well with sacrifice and question the moral framework guiding us always. To succeed is to live within it. To love is to be at peace with it. To hope is to plan with it. To be happy, is to help others with it.

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