Monday, March 31, 2008
it could have been this way or another
Life is a series of near misses. Events happen, or fail to happen, or are mitigated by other events, causing a chain reaction turning destiny around; like streams moving around more resistant rock, causing the entire river to live somewhere else completely.A lot of these near misses are plans failed in order for something else to succeed. Cosmos-folded rock layers creating waterfalls; man-made dams stopping the life-flow of rivers but creating electricity; conversion of a sungei into an urban river, making it a touristy, yuppies' locale or a parallel main traffic artery.
Some near misses are engineered by kismet. Mutually exclusive events of which one must not happen for the other to come into being. Like seeing the ugly side in someone, so that you can appreciate the beauty in another. Deciding to go for a party even though you are tired, just so you can meet the cutest girl you have ever seen since you knew you were alive. Events like that.
Some near misses really are about letting a dream die completely, before it can be resurrected in a fuller glory. You thought you missed the moment to fulfill the dream, but really, it was not a miss, but a planned death, so that you could see it rise from the ashes and appreciate its life more and never, ever let go of it. Now you will always run with this vision. You may see it die, but though it does, it merely tarries in this momentary death, for it will surely come to pass.
Near misses can become regrets. But we should live life with no regrets. Every mistake we accumulate can cause us to fall forward, not back and never again. Regrets merely choke up your drainage system, turning people into moronic, bitter, phobic-obsessives. God forgives and gives us a tabula rasa every morning. Let go of the near misses in life and hang on to the river which you are chasing towards the shore, taking its lessons with you, letting go of the rivers that could have been but never came into being. Run with it, for the revelation will surely come to pass.
I will see you at the seashore.