[My friend Riza beautifully wrote a thought on her page that features the majestic sunset (or was it sunrise?) at Shambala. She says: “We can always wait for the sunrise and the sunset… for surely they will come. We can hope for the rain during summer… for sometimes they really pour. But how can we wait for something or someone… when we don’t know if they will come at all… We should only WAIT for something with POSSIBILITY but not for those without certainty.” Thank you Riza for enriching this world with your provoking insights.
Here, I offer an alternative (but not necessarily opposing) take that, hopefully, could form part of a bigger gamut with Riza’s challenging thought.]
I - Possibility is DEFINITELY different from uncertainty. The first is positive; the second, negative. But come to think of it, they both form part of a continuum we call life: the first is like a glass seen half-filled, the second a glass seen half-empty. The thirsty worships the liquid in the container like god, the water-filled belly loathes the liquid it feels unnecessary. The same water of life can be seen differently in another milieu: the possibility of abortion could be happiness to some; the uncertainty of abortion is surreal to others.
II - Life is both sunset and sunrise: it is not defined mainly by our resolve but by how we are positioned in the flow of things, and how we are positioned can sometimes be a trap – much like how the earth traps us. No wonder, traps can create great literature! The traps of space, the traps of distance, the traps of feelings, the traps of slavery in the mind, the traps of capitalism and all other -isms, the traps of seeming emptiness, even the traps of over-purposefulness! But imagine if the earth rotates another way, then the sunrise will actually be the sunset of our lives, and all traps are valued as necessities for genuine joy. For now we cannot fathom the opposite of what we have come to accept. But who are we to say that things could not change if and when God wills it?
III - Science hopes to understand the flow of life and un-life, and strives to influence it: at times successful, yet often a failure. But with some sparks in our being – some crazy thoughts and, perhaps, a dash of philosophizing – we get to appreciate the balance of things, we get to discover some amalgamation of meanings of existence: the negative and the positive, the sunset and the sunrise, the uncertainty and the possibility. Possibility is definitely different from uncertainty. But ONLY FOR NOW! For who am I to say that the possible is indeed possible, and the uncertain indeed uncertain? Like what Job realized before his Creator, there is so much that is beyond my measure of things.
IV - There are a few left, though, that could be a subject of my choice. Indeed it is just a limited list of things for which my choice of the things to wait can be applied, for the coming and going of things I cannot even predict with certainty. For me, I am sometimes challenged by not waiting for the sunrise or the sunset, for I easily cognize what to expect and undemanding recall can sometimes bore humans. I am challenged, though, to wait for the moon that disappears one second when it was there full the previous second, then changes colors from silver to magenta without warning or absent any shadow of fear. Sometimes I relish the impossible when it is yet to be fulfilled – like visions incomprehensible to many a sense – yet this only proves my ordinariness and predictability just like most people, for lack of contentment!
V- There is nothing right or wrong in waiting for anything. What I wait for, I do not expect all others to anticipate for the level of appreciation and abhorrence varies from person to person. And it is not my right to judge anyone what he likes if I dislike it. For in the end, it is just a choice which is that to wait for and hope for in this world and beyond – whether it is heaven or hell. And I cannot even blame the others, if they do not wait and hope for anything at all. BECAUSE that is their choice; AND that is their choice.
4 March 2011
2:25 am
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