Yesterday the preacher discussed how unfulfilled expectations can ruin a person's zest for life. Bono once wrote "when you want something so badly, you have already lost it." I do not know what the preacher or Bono's point was, but the old saying "when you don't expect much, you don't get disappointed" comes to mind.
People disappoint. Life disappoints. When I was a kid I wanted to be a professional ball player. Now I want to be a professor who does not have to work. I have spent half my life redefining greatness. I have spent half of my life wanting a reality that cannot exist.
There are two ways to approach this problem. I can either not expect much and be a perfect stoic. I can take what life gives. Or I can make my own reality.
Of course, making reality sounds good, but the truth is most people who make reality are crazy or spend most of their days in their own mind. Unfortunately or fortunately, we have to work with other people. We are social beings.
The trick is learning how to deal with the bullshit. People will disappoint, but you cannot pay much attention to them. Sometimes you have stick with your definition of success. Other times you have to compromise. Like most everything else it is an in-between.
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2 comments:
I saw Babel last night. It hit at these issues much better than I ever could. I think Camus' Plague also said it well.
Life is preserverance through the bullshit. But the bullshit does exist.
oddly something about this post makes me think of viagra.
Another thing that comes to mind is that there is no avoiding this. If we didn't dissapoint, and if things were always perfect, then the things that we really do cherish would be less meaningful than they are now. Priorities would be shifted. if you knew you were going to win every football game, would you still practice?
question: What's more dissapointing? 1) Realizing a goal that you had set for yourself is unattainable, or 2) realizing that it doesn't exist?
GGM
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