ambivalent maxims

I've listed my favorites, so now I'll list a couple of sayings that I'm confused about. The confusion comes from the double-edged nature of these ideas, as well as my ambivalence as to whether I've seen them in action in life.

1. "this too shall pass" While this can be a comforting idea when going through a difficult time, the idea is dangerous for several reasons. It can always get worse. And, even the good times don't last. I don't know that it's much of a comfort to know we will soon be done with something. I'm leaning more these days to finding the life in moments as they come, pain and all (shake out this tired notion that the best is yet to come - per Dave Matthews).
2. "what goes around comes around" Really, how do we know? I've seen more grace and good turns than any of us deserve, and I've seen some pretty lousy things happen to people who were clearly not on anything like a deserving end. Maybe this one is supposed to mean across lifetimes, in the plural opportunities for justice of reincarnation. Even that explanation is a stretch for a saying that's supposed to be about fairness and balance. I think that we do get what we put out there more often than not. I also think we catch some that has nothing to do with us.

I believe that we make sayings like the two listed above to feel like we can predict and control our life events. It is as if we are telling life when it's been bad, then we're due for good (and vice versa). And if we've done bad, we're in for bad. I just haven't seen life making deals like that. What I've seen so far is that there is a definite imbalance in life. Most of the time it's good. It's so good that we expect it to always be good and are surprised by anything bad. When the bad happens, we think we caused it because it's safer to think that we're still in control than to think that bad things just happen here and there.

The deepest counter-quip I can find to these is the old "shit happens". I'm sure that puts me squarely in a school of philosophy named "defeatest" or mysansopht or kluless. It's just what I've seen so far, is all.

More Sayings

Life's a beach.

Life can be a beach, but lucky we live in Hawaii...

more random notes about random knitting

More about free form knitting...

Like stream-of-consciousness writing, I work with two sticks and a ball of string to make a piece of cloth. If I lose my way, so what? If I drop a stitch or start working backwards or try a new way to knit right in the middle of it all, so what?

Oh that life could be more like this. I'd like to change horses mid-stream as often as necessary. I'd like to eat half of dessert first, and then decide if I even want a meal. I'd like to try ideas on for size and see if I can let them go a little later.

But what a mess that would all make. I think it's supposed to be neat, this living thing. The dying gets messy, albeit unavoidable. But to make a mess in my life, when I could control it to tidiness... well, that's an odd idea.

Probably the closest comparison activity to free form knitting that I know of is prayer. Not rote prayer, but the "okay, now I'm stymied" kind of prayer. You just let it all hang out, gather it all together, and try to make something of the pieces. You talk about it along the way, work with it, find new bits of information, search for the missing parts, and tell yourself this is actually fun (because it is.)

Random knitting, as opposed to using a pattern, is akin to taking a 4-wheel drive vehicle off road. There are no maps. Some boulders are too big to tackle. Some washes turn you back. It tests your nerves, your determination, your curiosity, your skills... Sometimes you're sure it's going to be a wreck. But it's all new terrain and there's a silence here because so few are around. And there's wildlife just near if you pause and listen.