Friday, April 10, 2009

The art of living...


Pearblossom Highway… an ordinary desert highway…but if you look at the substrate…a simple view of it, you can compare it to one’s life!

During one’s lifetime, one has to make certain decisions, certain choices…choices that will eventually change one’s life, one way or another. At some point, one has to confront oneself with problems, having to choose between moving on or stopping or just ignoring it…or one just might be prevented or advised to: “STOP AHEAD”…Would one listen? Put yourself in one’s shoes…would you listen? Would you pay attention? Would you prevent yourself from a potential crash or you would go straight ahead without caring about the sign given or shown.

Through all the misleads of life, all the left-over, through all the memories, mistakes or good deeds, a person can always find himself/herself surrounded by the good and bad that life can offer; but that good or bad depends on each person's point of view. There are plenty of examples: some want a career before family, some want love before career, some want both at the same time, and some have none. It is said that when you crave for too much, you risk getting nothing, due to your stubbornness of having everything. "Everything" is gained in time, with experience and patience, love and understanding, trust and compromise!

          Having great expectations often brings great disappointments. Putting your hopes high for something that eventually proves itself hopeless or impossible, can crash a person. They say impossible is nothing, and if that so, why is the definition of impossible so clear, so certain, and so often seen? Is this life worth all the thinking, hoping, expecting?

            I’ve heard persons saying that life is an art! Well…If life is an art, then why aren’t we surrounded by so many artists? Why aren’t out there many more who are able to say: “I was a maestro in this art called life. I carved it with my music, with the color palette of the poems I’ve lived.”

            Why have we got so many stars, but just few artists in their true meaning? And if life is an art, then why are there so many homeless people all around the world, whom fight to survive from a day to the next? Where is the art in their lives? And most important: where is the art in having a life filled and fed with illusions, hopes…and as you age…everything hides behind the curtain, which is already consumed by time …and dreams that have already fallen asleep.

            And the answer given to all these questions is that life is an art just because it’s incomprehensible, just as all arts are. There are few people who know how to appreciate what was given to them: the right to live. If we search art in shortcomings, in useless things and hours wasted on nothing, we don’t know what it is that we are searching for.  If we have something to reproach, we should reproach it to ourselves. It’s true…some are born luckier that others, but we all ought to put good use to our resources and make our own way through life. The real frustration is that life is, in the end, an art but not many of us are able to become artists. We live our lives paying attention to things that aren’t worth it, to things that shouldn’t matter.

            When you get near a crossroads, just like in David Hockney’s picture, you realize that you have to make a decision that, in the end, will lead you to maturity… which leads you to real life, real persons and real problems…through all those…try finding yourself… Taking the right way can make you blossom!

            A human being, although surrounded by a sea of people, is born and dies alone, just like a cactus in the desert, where, far away, one can see a dusty highway, forgotten by time and space!

            Unfortunately, in a world full of bad persons, good persons are becoming harder and harder to find. Although so young, us, children heading heavily towards maturity, get to see all the bad things happening around us…The way I see it…life is just a prelude of death…Whose death? The death of good? Of bad? Both? None? Who knows? ...Only one person knows, but that is not a simple person…is God!

            However, each and every one of us is just a black spot on a blank map…A map of such complexity…the map called life!

So, in the end, what is life? An incomprehensible art, consisting of dusty desert highways, crossroads, shortcomings, short lasting happiness, lack of attention… But great landscapes! 

2 comments:

Shot 2 Hell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shot 2 Hell said...

Read this with you’re eyes wide open  Nice analogy, comparing life with you're average street, but, but sometimes, you have to look that one's life, is your life, and what you said here, is ... a general way of looking at things. Decisions have to be made sometimes in a split second, as on the road. You can basically say that, our life is the road, a long and distant walk, ride, depending on the comfort. Some of us have cars, and some of us don't. Some of us enjoy walking the streets, some of us like to feel them rushing beneath their feet at high speeds. And here, we can compare some feelings with this road. Love, Happiness, Hate, Anger, Sadness, Depression... All basic facts of life, in this case, the texture of your road. You see. Life is a road. But not all life's have the STOP AHEAD, some of us just have to open our eyes, and look at those people crossing the street. If not, the one that shall die, will not in fact be the walker, it will be the driver. For all the feelings of his life, will be judged from then on forth, on the fact that something is missing...Peace...We have to agree to the fact , that we are not born with anything, all that we learn in life, including walking, driving, looking out for an out coming car, are things that are not given to us at birth, but are learned trough sweet and tears. But sometimes, even the best of us can make mistakes, sometimes, we must learn not to be perfect at what we do, but to learn to forgive, the imperfections of others, to make them drive better. If not? Why would we leave the comfort of our homes, to walk around, ready to die at any moment. Sometimes, eyes wide open, or eyes wide shut... can make the difference between a crash, and a successful driving career.
Having great expectations and hopes, will not destroy us, it will only make us stronger, will just give us the will to fight, to achieve perfection, and to touch all possibilities, indeed. Something’s might be impossible, like running naked on the street with a bomb strapped on your back, near the pentagon without getting shot... But that's not because it's impossible to do. It's because stupidity has changed you're will into doing what your heart knows is wrong. Sometimes, our own reason betrays us, sometimes, reason over emotion, will take down what makes us human, and turn our road, and all the lights to green, which... is good, if you take into consideration, that people can do what they wish, but the casualties of this... will be...so many, that the brittle heart of the person who chose to use the bomb to change the course of the street, will not only be destroyed physically, but emotionally as well...
The beauty of a road, can only be seen by the eyes of the driver, as beauty for a girl, can only be seen from the eyes of the beholder. Incredibly enough, even homeless people are stars, but stars that have exploded and died long ago, and who's dreams have died, and they have died fighting for them, you can look to them and see a car crash that marked their life, in a way that they cannot retrieve from it, some of them are lucky enough to die, they just give up in the idea that everything will be ok, that their life will stop existing and all the pains of it the same, but there are some, who struggle from one day to another, in the idea, that the word impossible does not exist... and just by having this idea, just by living out in a world so harsh, they defeat impossibility, they tear into tiny little pieces and eat out of it each day... even if their dreams have been killed, and all their emotion torn away from them, their will to fight, will make impossible sound just like another word from a dictionary... Maybe that's why after a star explodes, it's light is still seen here for millenniums after... the dream is alive... You can basically look at an artist, by the way he drives his car. Seen crazy people on the road? They are just kids, that have not seen the pain of what a car "life" can actually do to you, seen a calm driver? Someone who drives well? That's the type of driver, that keeps his demon locked inside, waiting for the right moment, when no one is around, to unleash it... but sometimes even that can kill, seen the calm and aggressive drivers? Those are the type of drivers...that will always admit to the fact that they like to keep it safe, but also the ones that will fly away from the first accident they have, no matter how strong they seam to you. You can say, that all artists have defects. All stars, all artists, will have a defect... but an artist is only appreciated by the one who reads his work and stays by his side, even when he does have that accident.
Maybe you are right , maybe life is harsh on people, indeed maybe some are luckier than others, to have what they always wanted in the palm of their hands with no fights. Indeed, but, this is not the problem on the open road. If you fall of a bike on the road, and loose your hand, have money? Have resources as you said, no problem that hand can come back. But maybe other people have just the resources they need to survive, and that's all they need. Fall of a bike and lose a arm... you will never get it back. But the beauty of this is that, they will fight with one arm more than the other fight's with two, and in this God forsaken world, no one can appreciate the power of that one hand. No one can look at the art that, that man can create with only one arm. They prefer to stay close to someone with two arms, someone who can take anything away from another with one limb, just because they we're in the right spot, in the right time... with the right resources... But tell me now, on this road, on this life, would you throw everything away because the person that is on your right seat lost his arm? Or would you take him back, and look at him fight for that lost arm, for that lost dream, for that will to survive and kill impossibility... Or would you rather take the hands of a stranger, close your eyes, shut your ears, not listen to how he drives... just believe that everything will be okay, and that he will not hit anyone on the road while driving, can you take that risk? So in the end , what is life? A person that has 2 hands but can't use them? A person that has one hand, but will fight with two? Roads are ugly, bumps and humps, up's and downs, but sometimes, it's better not to leave the car you started to drive in the first place, sometimes, it's better to fix it , even if it's a pile of junk... Because that car, is the living proof, that you are alive for something, alive for a reason, not just luck, not just to think, but to love the driver , who took his hand of the wheel before the crash, and put it on you, even at the risk of losing it... Sometimes “Would you pay attention? Would you prevent yourself from a potential crash or you would go straight ahead without caring about the sign given or shown. “ it’s better to crash just to know , that driving is not for you, and just to prove that you can be the shoulder of that person , even if you loose it on the open road… Many of us don’t appreciate a sacrifice as big, as giving your life for someone… But car’s don’t care, neither do people with two hands that take strangers of the road… Only the one you drove for 20071009 miles can know that, and give even more, to know that his passenger is safe from the terrors of the open road.