Through our life we are constantly seeking and building us structures ¨C stable relationship, family, friends, community, a secure job, a stable life ¡. Within these structures we feel safe, we feel we are attached to something strong and endurable, something tangible and solid, something we can hold on to. We say they are harbors for our tired souls. A person must be a very sad one if he/she can¡¯t find a place like home, a person like family in the heart. After all, who wants to be a rootless breeze of wind that leaves no traces behind in this world?
Yet on the other hand, we are also constantly breaking the structures we have built for ourselves, for we human beings are the restless, rebellious creatures that forever want to be free. To be free from any committed relationships and obligations, to get away from all routines and our same-old, same-old, tedious daily life. We envy the roamers lying on the benches in the park - they seem to own the blue, vast sky and endless sunshine, while we have to sit in a windowless cubicle. They seem to have all time in the world while we struggle to find an extra half-hour to ourselves at end of each busy day. At these moments, we wish we were that rootless breeze of wind that travels at its free will, overcoming the obstacles of space and time.
Maybe life is just this big paradox we can never escape? Maybe life is already fulfilling and enriching itself during this endless effort of structure building and breaking? When among kids crying and screaming at home we wish we could have some quiet time to be alone, but we also smile at their sweet, innocent eyes. When we feel missing the little ones so much when we are on the road, we also treasure the time being alone to do some quiet reading, the space that only belongs to ourselves, or the freedom to walk on the streets of a big city to see a late night movie, though it¡¯s only a temporary freedom.
Smart as we are, the best we can do is probably to enlarge our space without destroying the structures, to honor our obligations without sacrificing the ultimate freedom, to enjoy our stable, warm life without forgetting who we truly are. Maybe then we can stay calm, content, and happy.
- Re: To Maya - Something I wrote beforeposted on 05/08/2003
To tell you the truth, this sounds like cliche enlarged and marinaded, and I can bet it won't do any good to Maya.
Moralizing kills the literary art and the fun of putting words together.
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