Just Let Go

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We are all looking for a meaning, whether looking up to the sky or just all around. Sometimes, we just are and even content about it… some other times, everything becomes just unbearable and we ask all these existentialism questions and get for answer only our echo.

In the end, it all comes down to one thing: whether to let go or no. It brought me a great sense of peace, although I had not quite formulated it yet. It is a piece I was looking for, without having any knowledge of the fact that I was. It felt like the last snows shaken off of tree-branches – FREEDOM. The question is: what is it that one lets go? I think it might be the meaning of it all. Truthfully, I cannot say that I have figured it all out, and when – or if – I ever do, it will be for my heart’s content only… it will be my own truth, the one that cannot be challenged by anyone but me.

So…

We are born; we live; and finally we die. It is the same for everyone; for every living creature: the cycle of life. For each life a cycle.
What are we? – A CYCLE.
What’s the point? – NO IDEA.
What are we anyway? – A SPECIES IN THE CYCLE OF LIFE.

For each individual in a species is cycle – WE’RE ALL THE SAME.
What species? – HUMAN.
What is human? – ALL THAT IS NOT NATURE.
But, nature is also a cycle that renews itself because it just is – WHITHERING ETERNITY.
Human seeks eternity therefore procreates, builds, kills, ruins… to be talked of, remembered – IMMORTAL.
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The void one experiences with the loss of a beloved one is terrifying, so much so that one assumes that it is what death is – VOID – The soul wanders into the void for eternity. That would suck!
For those believing this, I have good news! It would seem that we do not have a soul, some ‘crackpots scientists’ said so… it must be true, right.
SPIRITUAL SCIENCE – We’ve seen it all.

Well, anyway…

It all comes down to one choice: whether to let go or no. For each and every one of us, there are good and bad things to which we hold on to. We are so afraid to forget who we are if we let them go. I guess self-sabotaging our own happiness resides in our DNA – well, if God made us at his image, as is told in The Old Testament, he must feel pretty miserable right now. If, however, God has nothing to do with our creation, then we may as well be the freaks of nature that we so often talk about.

And yet, we are all the same – creatures of God or just simple freaks of nature – standing on the same old blue planet… thinking the world of ourselves, but unable to be happy because we need to understand it all.

What if we’d just let go?

Fate…

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As I was thinking of an article I have published elsewhere, I ended up being stuck with a French song from musical “Notre-Dame de Paris” written by Luc Plammandon. It goes like this and I quote:

“Fate – Mistress of our destinies
Fate – When you cross our path
Fate – Prince or pauper
Fate – Queen of prostitute
Fate – You hold our lives in your hand.”

I used to say: ‘Everything happens for a reason‘ but I lately realised how dull that sounded. Life is more complicated than that. Seriously, what does it mean after all that ‘everything happens for a reason‘ beyond the obvious cliché?

As the song says “Fate – Mistress of our destinies”, which should mean that whatever we do, no matter the decisions we make, none of it actually belong to us. Now that is a ‘crappy’ concept because I have always been led to believe in freewill. Does freewill exist then? The song goes on saying that no matter who we are, fate will find us and be done with us. Fate has a very negative connotation I find, don’t you think? Yet, I am not sure it is that accurate, or is it…

If the witch of xxxHolic (manga/anime) explains that as soon as we meet someone, we are linked forever to that person – even if we do not meet ever again; then if she says that there are no coincidences (like other characters in other fictional stories)… it is easy not to challenge it because it is a fiction. In need to ask, however, from where do such ideas come to the mind of the artist then? I mean, in all stories we tell, are pieces of truth – or if not truth, folklore and/or superstitions. Back to my witch… she talks about them as real and, ‘hell’, why should superstitions not be real? Is it because they are superstitions? Is it because they are far-fetched?

Fate is pretty far-fetched too… when you do something, it will impact your life whether you know of it or not; it will also mean a consequence for the world on a more or less big scale. That is what fate is and that is a pretty big pill to swallow. Now, whether one chooses to believe in fate or not, if it exists… it does not make it less ‘real’; if it does not exist… well, no change. What is true? What is not? Does it really matter?

One could actually think that way: just in case, better act the best way I can so I do not make things worse for me or others. Beyond that, there is no way of knowing if we do influence the world as fate would have us do. It is impossible to know if a good action will backfire because as soon as we interact with one another, we influence each other. As soon as we do something we provoke a reaction… anticipated or no.

But fate does know – let me push the issue once more – and therefore free will does not exist because everything is written. Well, this is TOO depressing! Does fate exist or not? It is not my problem! I declare that I am my own fate, that I care for others the best I can and as often as they need me to. I am not perfect and make plenty of mistakes…  but I do my best to learn from them. How do I influence the world around me? Hopefully in a good way… if not, I hope I did not do too much damage.

Fate… stop messing with my head!

Fatalism or optimism?

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Does everything happen for a reason?

This may be a cliché quote but there is a whole philosophy of fatalism behind it. This sounds bad, granted, but it does not make it so. Fatalism has a lot to do with the belief that, somehow, everything that happens to us is planned in advance. Everything has a meaning even if we, at the particular moment it happens – aware of it or no – do not see the big picture that is intended.
Everything is a sign; everything has a meaning at a particular point in time; everything is planned for us without us having a say in it. That is a horrible concept/philosophy, especially when life gets so hard that all hidden meaning lose their purpose since they have long become unreachable.

For argument sake, let’s stick to our “little” lives and get blind to all others for just a minute; how many things happened that you did not like and yet, you love where you are today? I know I have had a list stored in the back of my brain for some time now. Okay… the minute’s gone!

Let’s take a look at the world and the bigger picture I mentioned earlier. I read an article the other day that made me think for the rest of it. It was in a British newspaper and it talked about a bird-species that was about to become extinct in Africa. For what I remember, Africa had not yet been touched by any bird-species’ extinction: big deal, you should say. The writer looked then at the bigger picture. All the species that disappeared since mankind. Spooky, right!
Anyway, he was also talking about all the people involved to protect the Liben lark (name of the bird). Suddenly he pondered and wondered, or maybe he stated his belief that, mankind was on Earth to utterly destroy it, so how come some of us cared so much to protect it? What difference did it make? Was there a reason for all this?

Fatalism can really be a mood dampener. I wrote a free verse poem in 2005 called “Watch the signs” where I say to be on the look out because the next step is facing us and we often miss it – or is it always that we do. I do not know how right or wrong I was, but I learnt not to see signs everywhere, nor look for them in everything. I learnt with experience that fatalism can be the key to disaster in most cases; it can also kill hope in weak hearts… it almost destroyed MY freewill – which is (could be) an illusion for the fatalist.

In the end, I am a little bit of a fatalist with a big dose of optimism. What about you?