Also, I feel like I should inform you in advance that this blog is in intentionally shorter than usual. I tend to write a lot to begin with, but I've been getting longer and longer as time has gone on and I feel bad. So this one will be short, sweet, and to the point.
For a few years now, I've been interested in the concept of Universal Balance. Cultures since the dawn of time have also been fascinated by balance and have exhibited such in various displays of duality in their religious, mythical, and spiritual beliefs. Light and dark, good and evil, right and wrong, male and female, day and night, hot and cold, fire and water, earth and air, time and space, etc.
Lately, I've been pointing out little moments in life where it seems like things are really fantastic, and then everything sucks two or three days later. I have really stretched my belief in universal balance because of that, seeing all these instances of things staying balanced over some period of time. At some points, it even seems like the flow of time runs on a system of balance. Some days, time drags on and on and on, and others, it flies by so quickly, you're not sure you were even awake most of the day. A good example of this is that January took like five months to pass, and February took about two days. Or so it seems.
I get frustrated by this balance, blaming Murphy for ruining things once they started looking up, but that's not the final conclusion I've come to about it. I decided that it's like a pendulum, something that isn't by any means an original thought, but is still a great picture.
| I couldn't find any pictures of a swinging pendulum, so you get this diagram instead. |
Life is a pendulum, swinging between the good and bad things in life. It goes back and forth, into one half, then back to the other. Now, if someone were to put their hand on the bad side to try and keep it from swinging into that half of the spectrum, the pendulum would lose its momentum and therefore not be able to swing as far the other direction. Its range decreases on both sides if you limit one. So by limiting your ability to experience the bad, you also limit your ability to experience the amazing things in life that make it worth living. You can't have one without the other.
A good example of this is living cautiously. If someone is always afraid something bad is going to happen, then they take all sorts of precautions to keep things from going wrong. They don't do dangerous things or exciting places, they don't do anything reckless, they always keep to the plan and live so as to preserve their life the best. Now, this person would surely be safe from danger, but they would also be safe from doing anything fun or exciting. They'd never go sky diving or rock climbing, they'd never listen to loud music, they'd never drink irresponsibly, they'd never stuff themselves silly with junk food,they'd never meet anyone exciting or new, they'd never go on adventures or do much of anything at all. They'd have less bad, but they'd keep themselves from just as much good.
Of course, this also works the opposite way. People who over-indulge in good things open themselves up to a lot of bad in equal amounts. The solution to this is the adage that has taken my group of friends by storm: Everything in moderation.
A pop culture example would be the movie Equilibrium, with Christian Bale. In the movie, mankind suffered through the tragedy of World War III, and decided that IV would leave no one alive. So they sought the root of humanity's problems and realized it was emotions. Hatred, anger, greed, lust, etc. To solve this problem for everyone's sake, an intravenous drug called Prozium was created to suppress emotions. There's a lot to the movie, but the eventual point is that though the drug gets rid of the root cause of violence, it also gets rid of the positive spectrum of human emotion. The decision must then be made as to whether or not allowing ourselves to feel the good emotions is worth the cost of the bad.
| Also, lots of action-y violence and fight scenes. Cleric John Preston is way cooler than Batman. |
In my opinion, it's worth it every time. Life wouldn't be worth living without all the good things. Sure, the bad things suck, but they're not everything. And if all you spend your time doing is focusing on the bad, of course that's all you'll see. I'm learning to accept the bad and hold onto the good. I've found this amazing new appreciation for life in understanding the balance of life and what it really means.
So don't forget, audience. Life may suck now, but it won't always suck. The pendulum will swing back around and things will be okay again. Till next time, just keep swinging.
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