Life’s Variety Show

And so the daily business and the immensity continue. Snow is melting in the northeast, creeks are drying up in the southwest, all against the backdrop of the changeless. Sky is sky, no matter what is falling out of it or evaporating back into it.

Do we voice an opinion? Maybe. Or maybe not. We can voice an opinion vociferously. Or we can voice an opinion and not take it seriously. Or we can pretend serenity, all the while seething or whimpering. Or we can alternate between all of the options. As Walt Whitman so magnanimously states, “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

It is not a problem to be full of so many selves. The sky doesn’t prefer cumulonimbus to cirrus to altostratus. All condensations are acceptable. This is not so much in praise of multiple personality syndrome as it is of the truth of our being. Every situation brings forth its unique and appropriate response. And when we do not stand in self-judgement, requiring of ourselves a rigid consistency, we live the freedom that we are. The Self is allowed its full range of expression.

So much coming in the in-door, going out the out-door, coming out the in-door, going in the out-door… every which way… so much traffic, changing weather, changing opinions, changing moods, changing bodily conditions! And then, behind all the comings and goings, there’s the sky.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this impermanence and diversity, we might well heed Warren Zevon’s advice : “Enjoy every sandwich.”

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