Like foam on the frothing waters

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is, bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."
-William Shakespeare

Soaring; ever expanding; there now, but then gone into the unknown - like the foam on the frothing waters - our life hangs on the passions, ambitions, and dreams we hold close to our hearts. Our life might just flicker for a while and end in dark silence; or it might soar through the air as a bird would; or to apply modern terminology, as the prices of essentials that feed and keep us alive would when touched by the greed of politicians; or it might turn out to be just hunger induced hallucinations.

Whatever it may be, be as it may become; one thing seems certain: until our passions, ambitions, and dreams are tempered by truth and molded by the noble values espoused by the combined wisdom of mankind; we will not see justice, peace, prosperity temper our lives. Hence, our life is like the foam on frothing waters. It materializes and disappears. Some think there is a reason for it, and some others think not.

Circumstances

I suppose, the best one could do under the circumstances is to let life follow its own tides; because, like the churning and the boiling of the sea, and the foam on top of it; that is what man is, churning and foaming; but never constant: manifesting and re-manifesting all the time like a dream in different forms. The appearing and reappearing in bursts of energy is endless; goes on forever and ever; very much like the foam on the frothing sea.

In this strange and transcendental world, it seems there are no rules, or at least, it seems as if the rules that govern the rest of the world breaks down, as though in a black hole. In some ways, it also seems like, we are in the centre of a black hole; where-from, there is no escapes. Thus, for all intent and purpose, life, as it appears, is within the boundary of a region from which no escape is possible; but is revealed, time-and-time-again.

A quest on the edge of an endless life can feel like an eternal glitch, a mysterious void. Glitches however, usually reveal something about the platform upon which our life is built, or something underlying. For instance, not every glitch is deeply interesting, but some reveal fascinating things to make us wonder: between this and the previous, this and that, or this and the next life: how many worlds will we see, how many interminable miles of mountain ranges will we cross, how many oceans, tree lines, and lakes.

However, like the journey itself, glitches have the prospect of being serendipitous or going horribly wrong. Yet, between the here and the hereafter, life and death seems one, even as the river and the sea are one; and all of it, it seems is within an escapeless black hole, where infinity laps like waves against a sea wall.

Grasp

Black holes, in the classical picture of physics, are incredibly dense objects where space and time are so warped; nothing escapes from their gravitational grasp. If most people know one thing about black holes, they probably know that nothing can escape from them, not even light. Yet this most basic tenet about black holes has actually been, disproven by the laws of quantum mechanics, which govern the universe's tiniest elements. In quantum mechanics, if a reaction is possible, the opposite reaction is also possible: processes should be reversible. Thus, if a person is, swallowed by a black hole, a black hole should also be able to spit out a person. As with that, when we are trapped in the seemingly endless, inescapable sea of life, we ought to be able to escape from it. The question, of course, is how to achieve this seeming impossibility? The question also may arise as to, whether one wants to escape from life?

Irrespective of these questions, life goes on; whether you choose to move on and take a chance in the unknown; or stay behind, locked in the past, thinking of what could have been. The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.

Therefore, let us not burden our remembrance with a heaviness that is gone. When something seems impossible, it is easy to get into a defeatist mentality; and that just adds to the impossibility of it all. It may be true that one is never sure of achieving things by starting upon a journey towards it; but one needs to make a start to achieve anything. Starting is the most important part of success; even though finishing is, often thought of as having arrived.

Beginning

It is not; it will only be another beginning. It is so easy to end up wondering about how things will turn out that we lose sight of getting started. Further, if we worry about failing, or coming up against obstacles along the way, this can deter us from even starting. However, all of that is imaginary thinking because, in reality, one will only know what will really happen, when one start moving towards the goal and deal with the challenges as one come upon them. Even if, in the process, we fall on our faces; the fact is we are still moving forward.

This is true because if we are afraid of failure, we will not make any progress. In life, there is only progress or regress; there is no standing still. We either moving forward or we move backward. It is always better to keep forward momentum, even if that involves falling on our face. We will learn from the experience; and will be able to apply that to future challenges, potentially avoiding future face-fallings. If we do not attempt something for fear of falling on our face, we will not move forward, and will end up shriveling into a version of ourselves that is not as great as it could be. Therefore, do not keep watching the clock. Do what it does: Keep going. Life, after all, is like the foam on frothing waters. It appears and disappears. So make the best before it disappears.

Blame

Thus, the only disability in life is a bad attitude. The best years of our life are the ones in which we decide our problems are our own. We do not blame them on our mother, the ecology, or the president. Hence, realize that you control your own destiny. Hence, learn to leap; the net will appear. If we wait around for conditions to be perfect before sticking our neck out, we will be waiting forever. We have to have some faith in order to branch into something new and unknown.

Take the flying leap and trust that things will turn out right. What usually ends up happening is that situations will present themselves that never could have or would have presented themselves had we not made a bold choice and thrown ourselves into it. Remember that the future is, promised to no one; but one finds limits by pushing them. Hence, do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking, for the wise does at once what the fool does at last.

For views, reviews, encomiums, and brickbats: [email protected]