Not that many days ago, I was remembering a lesson life taught me long ago — how people crack and show their deepest, darkest selves when times get rough. How, when pressure mounts, those frail facades just shatter into nothingness.
And of course, I was right.
No need to point fingers — that wasn’t the point back then, and it’s still not the point now. I guess, in my mind, all I’m doing is trying to cope with the ugliness I knew I was going to witness — the same ugliness I now find myself staring at.
Still, I suspect the worst hasn’t happened yet. There’s more drama to come, for sure. Another shocking revelation. Another OG quitting, hanging up the gloves. Another project calling it quits. It’s always at the point of the sharpest pain that things begin to turn around.
This reminds me of something I once learned from Alan Watts, back when I was trying to cope with my own poor financial decisions. I’m paraphrasing, but the meat on the bone is what matters.
Everything in nature is cyclical. A day announces the night, just as the night announces the sun. The good times announce the bad, just as the bad give way to the good. Everything is a cycle. It doesn’t matter so much where you are in that wave, but how you react to it.
I want to believe I’m reacting in a way I can be proud of tomorrow. I want to feel that I’m giving it my best try, trusting that as long as I do, the outcome can’t truly disappoint me.
I say this knowing there’s still more pain to come. But, as the late philosopher said — or implied, to be more accurate — that also means there are more joys, more victories, just around the corner.
MenO