What is life, but a continuing adjustment?
As comfortable and content as we may feel at any given time, it cannot last and clinging to what was can only lead to unhappiness.
It’s all very well to acknowledge this. but moving on is often painful.
But such is life.
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“Such is life” was an expression people of my parents generation used. Perhaps it came from the experience of two world wars.
In those times, you accepted the way things were and carried on. People were tough because they had to be.
In far too many parts of the world, people have to be tougher than ever as they face increasingly awful circumstances.
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Meanwhile, in other parts it seems to me we are becoming soft, physically and emotionally.
After leaving Asia when I was 16, to emigrate to the USA, I entertained the idea of perhaps joining the Volunteers for Overseas Service. I had met some volunteers in Laos and the idea appealed to me.
America had the Peace Corps.
In the States, my life became immediately complicated and I didn’t have the self-confidence then to follow my instinct.
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Oh, I became self-sufficient, got an education of sorts, found employment and paid my taxes.
As I was living in the States and since I didn’t have to surrender my British Citizenship, I became naturalised because I thought it important to vote.
To the best of my ability, I voted responsibly, making choices that seemed right, if not necessarily for me.
Big deal!
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It is fair to say that I was emotionally abused and for quite a long time but it does not compare to the experience of world war or to any of the many devastating things that happen to people every day.
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What I feel at the end of 75 years is a sense of emptiness, of personal dissatisfaction, of never having been tested.
It’s not just me. Many of my generation are in the same situation. What hardships have most of us had to endure?
Don’t misunderstand. I am grateful! But I think we are a species that needs to be tested.
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Because we are a species that is never satisfied. We always want more. Bigger. Better. Faster.
Without challenge life becomes boring and bored people get into trouble.
Isn’t this why those who can afford it go off to climb Everest or participate in more and more exotic forms of sport and travel until there is no new place left for them to go?
Society, that is the society of which I am part, is in a shambles. At the age of 17 when I went to college, I imagined that we were the generation that was going to build a better world.
Now I wonder if it can be saved.
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Would it be so awful if young people leaving school were to serve two years of social service?
It should be something to be proud of, a contribution to their country, something that would give them a sense of belonging.
It might even lead them to their future destiny.
Ideally, it would also expose them to young people of very different backgrounds and they would find that deep down, people are all the same.
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Not likely, I know.
This was not at all what I intended to write but as so often, a few words led me off my path.
“Such is life” I wrote…
Thank you, Carolyn, for your philosophical musing! And I feel I have been tested enough, thank you!
Joanna
I have always thought that a period of mandatory social commitment is a good idea. I do not expect to see it happen though!
I like your idea of 2 years of social service – it will probably change a young person’s way of thinking about life a bit. Maybe you haven’t been through world wars, but I think you’ve also experienced your own challenges in life. And on the positive side, you can reflect back and say that, in your way, you overcame that.
I am from the same generation as you, (almost 72 years old) and had a relatively easy life, albeit in a tough working-class district of London to start with. I also felt untested in my 20s, so at the age of (almost) 28 I joined the London Ambulance Service and worked as an EMT for 22 years. That genuinely tested me. After that I went to work for the Police in London for close to 11 years, and had a completely different but no less daunting experience of being tested.
By the time I was approaching 60, that was enough. My days of being tested were put behind me.
Best wishes, Pete.
There is a long list of those who serve, in peaceful times as well as war, who are tested many times over. They are the unsung heroes to whom we owe so much. I hope you know how much I admire you for your many years of service.
You got sidetracked… such is life eh?