THOUGHTS ON LIFE

The McRae Homeland

A comment on the title of this first blog...

The noted naturalist, John Muir, a Scotsman whose philosophies influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement, once stated,

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion. Chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.

It is probably fact that Muir was not a respecter of organized religion, or of a God, per se. However, there was within his study an appreciation of nature, an understanding of the interconnection of that nature and a soul. Well, his definition of a soul. Frankly, I am not interested in what his philosophy was on those matters – God, soul and such. I will be honest. I just liked his quote. There is within it a connection between life and how it reacts with the natural man – “the building, and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing” aspect. Is that not what life is like? Definitely, it is NOT that dreamy, fantasy-like, magical, romantic place where lovers reside in seclusion making us all ill with their twitterpated wooing and drooling on each other. It is not the cutting and pasting of scrapbook cuteness. In contrast, it sucks most of the time. Only youth are still star-struck with the magic of mortal life. The rest of mankind is being pulled about, whirling and flowing in the hurricane winds of sickness, depression, poverty, stress, death, starvation, divorce, pornography, and aging - among a few of the challenges of our existence on this planet. And do not think for a moment that aging is a joyride on the merry-go-round of life. Far from it.

I could enumerate dozens of acquaint- ances who struggle with the above everyday. I have a friend that lies awake at night worrying about her son that appears to indicate a learning disorder. His teachers tell the parents he will never graduate from seventh grade. There is the student whose husband battles cancer. They are just on the precipice of life. There is my daughter, her children and thousands like them. They have been abandoned by self-indulgent husbands and fathers that are chained to, and smothered by one of the world's most insidious sins, that of pornography. I do not think anyone wants to wear the shoes of any of these individuals, but so many have no choice in the matter. Life is agency, and agency is choice, and millions around the world make choices that destroy the lives of others. Many just suffer as victims of life. The process, as Muir described, of "creating and destroying" is carried forth.

Tell me that life does not suck, and that after a lifetime of wrestling with these stimulating tests of abilities, we do not end up six feet under. So be it. However, the trick is not allowing the “struggles” to diminish our abilities. We will all die, and, by the way, it will still cost you an unbelievable amount of money to do that! My daughter who has been left with three children has risen like the Phoenix to higher levels of ability. Pioneer spirit and blood truly runs through her veins. She soars higher, and more often than not, tires from the soaring. There will be an answer to my friend and her son’s dilemma. Cancer will be smothered one way or another. None of the examples mentioned above have “died.” They have chosen to fight the good fight, and as a consequence, will “chase everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another.”

True, life sucks, but we do not have to die as a result of living it.

Sand Cherry in the spring.