There Ain't No Finish Line
It's a massive “you must so you may” loop.
This life is divided into two parts: Those things you may do, and those things you must do to do the things you may do. It is a never ending loop. You must do certain things if you may want to do certain other things. And it doesn’t stop. It just keeps going. It is a wheel of torturous satisfaction.
There is this joke (or it’s a meme. Whatever): Life is doing the dishes just so you can dirty them again - repeat. As circuitously futile as it may seem, that statement sums it up fairly well. You must do this one thing, so that you may enjoy this other thing.
Not everything we do is going to be perfectly enjoyable. The fruits of that labor might make it all worthwhile, but that doesn’t make the labor less… laborious. And then we run out of fruit and have to do it all over again.
To keep your sanity it is best to come to grips with the fact that the world just keeps on spinning. Regardless of your desires, and/or as much as you would like it to stop, the damn thing just keeps on turning. Sure, you can stop to smell the flowers, but that doesn’t put anything on hold.
I am not trying to paint a shitty view of the frivolous redundancy of this purposeless existence (if I have, I apologize). What I am trying to point out is that there ain’t no finish line1. In anything that you try to achieve, you may think there's an end, but that's just another beginning.
Right now you’re probably thinking, “Holy shit, Dan. You have a weird way of talking about happiness.”
Yeah, well, get over it.
This world spins. Sometimes you have to do the shit job. Quit your bitching and get on with it already. Happiness isn’t about getting everything you want just the way you want it every single time you want it. Happiness is about enjoying everything (everything)2 that life throws at you. Yes, even the shitty stuff. Because through the shitty stuff we get to enjoy the good stuff.
If what we enjoy is worth the price we pay, then it is worthwhile to enjoy the price.
Well, actually, there is, but it doesn’t come with accolades and trophies. It comes with eulogies and flowers.
EVERYTHING!