But it is not all bad. It for example squarely dispels any misapprehension that dwelling upon our problems will be resolved by responsiveness from others. In the first place, each of us without exception has sufficient distress with which to cope. In the second place, none of us has the time to dwell at any meaningful length upon other than our own painfulness. Ultimately the universe is personal and that means we must come to grips with our private trials alone.
The real misconception about life’s problems isn’t
that nobody’s listening and nobody cares, rather the delusion that it would
make any real difference even if they were or did. Allow me that I am here not talking of the
material deprivations of life, the want of food and shelter. Clearly there are people and organizations who
service such needs. But the problems of
the soul cannot be so easily ministered to: the things that torment us in the
middle of the night, the paroxysms of culpability and uncertainty that prickle
during the day. We have only ourselves
to look to in that regard. Eventually
each of us awakens to our quarantined reality whatever it may be, no matter the
magnitude of compassion from others if indeed any at all.
The sense of isolation which such a trajectory
engenders is formidable. It does however
keep one’s feet on the ground. All that
business about being “…a part of all that I have met…” is suddenly quite
inappropriate and unnecessarily poetic.
Virtually nothing will either contaminate or improve the essence of our
being other than our own initiatives, and to seek reimbursement or deference
from society as a whole is a decided waste of time. Our inner vexations are so secluded from the
outer world that the prospect of commingling the two is purposeless. Furthermore the natural human inclination to
seek the approbation of others, whether through attention or understanding, is
tidily side-lined by the recognition that you’re on your own.
Nevertheless there is thereby a certain
empowerment. The elimination of the
frivolity and irrelevance of extraneous considerations at least provides a
focus and drive for our endeavours.
Ambition and the nutrients which feed it are likewise from within. To plunder the resources of the empty well of
others is mistaken. In the end it
doesn’t matter that nobody’s listening and that nobody cares.
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