We page through this sometimes-surreal lifetime looking for something we only get glimpses of. Some purpose, some goal, some end game that makes all of the struggle worth it – the good job, the nice stuff, the completeness, the touchdown.
We look for something that will fill the void, like the narrator in “Fight Club,” with the string green stripe patterns and the Hovatrek excerbike. If I could only have this…
When does all of that end? Probably when we’re dead, because this type of thinking seems so ingrained in us by popular culture that we think it’s the truth. “Drive equals love,” and on and on. Needless.
All of us have had insights, moments or spots of time when we see something above or beneath all of the searching and sales slips.
The fact of the matter is that nothing outside of ourselves will ever complete us. Nothing will ever fill the void or allay the anxiety. No amount of stuff, no squadrons of name brands hung waiting in closets will ever bring us to the place we want – some place beyond competition, beyond dominance or beyond acting.
Our world moves so fast that we’re all running around like chickens with our heads cut off, looking for the minds we’ve lost so we can finally see straight and finally see what this madness is all about and finally get our bearings so we can find a way out.
Alas, there is none. But perhaps there is something here that makes all of the suffering and tragedy have value. Perhaps it is you.
When a child is born, there is an event of creation that can’t be contained to one being. When that baby first cries, the whole world is reborn.
And everyone is born into relationships, they are inescapable and rightly so. You are a son, a daughter, a this, a that, forever something. We’re wholly tied to other people. We’re never alone.
Man is a social creature not only by desire but almost by beautiful requirement, as some rule of this game. Because it is only in other people that we will find the answers we seek – the answers to ourselves.
Why are we cruel to one another? Why do we kill? Why is there so much pain? And perhaps the most mysterious question of all, why do we love one another?
Perhaps the answers to the questions are not as important as the questions themselves. But nonetheless, it’s people, not malls, people, not stuff, that can give us glimpses into the beauty that all of us carry around inside – that all of us are.
We come to this world with nothing but our bodies – naked apes in this compound jungle of want. We come with just our bodies, because that is all we need. That, and each other. No amount of stuff or credit will ever take the place of human contact. And no amount of shopping will make the loneliness go away.
So, the quarter’s over. Some are going home for Christmas, and some will be graduating. One final thing, before I, too, get the hell out of here for awhile. It’s a law of the universe that what you put out, you will receive. If you love, you will be loved. If you hate, you will be hated. Another aspect of the game.
So, as you’re sitting around unwrapping your presents, or getting your diploma (finally), look into the faces of those around you like you’re looking into a mirror – and smile.
Bob Paschen is a junior in English. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
