Brainwaves of Sken

I saw this in a random journal I was reading, and I’m listening to appropriately conceptual-y music, so I thought I’d put this here, both for others to read and for me to come back to:

To consider the meaning of life, it is necessary to examine what someone leaves behind in the wake of her absence. What impressions has she made upon the psyches of those who’ve known her? What impact has she made upon the lives of people touched by her words and deeds, her lessons and example?

When I think of what life means, I think of a garden. Every plant that starts from seed grows in rich soil that was made all the richer by the decay and reintegration of its forebears, sort of like how we all benefit from the lessons learned from the generations before ours in the form of family stories or history lessons, legends and fables. Every seed emerges from the soil seeking light, and as children, we only want to be loved and nurtured as well. With proper tending, watering, feeding, and training, we flourish; without these things we often languish. When we see a plant or a person that thrives despite harsh conditions, like a daisy growing out of a crack in the pavement, we are in awe of the singularity and beauty of its very existence.

I’m going to skip all that stuff about biological imperatives to reproduce, because that’s not where I’m going with this metaphor. Life is fragile, and our appearances on its stage but brief and ephemeral occurrences. We do not choose to be born rose or dandelion, nor do we choose whether we are sown in freshly turned soil or rocky crevice. We must make of it what we can and live to our fullest potential, to see another day of sunshine, to breathe, to drink from the earth, and to grow. We just have to do our best not do harm to our neighbors, nor to have harm done to us, and to just be. In due time, we will wane and make way for our successors, and hope that our lessons and stories will fertilize their imaginations and help them as much as our predecessors’ had for us.

~ by Skennedy on January 17, 2007.

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