Paradise Preoccupied

A comment on a recent post starts my day off as dawn cracks on the rock this morning and sets me to contemplatin’. It’s from Lisa Thibault Pietsch, a dear friend and former editor, one hell of a good writer who has known me for years and has great observational skills she’s not one bit shy about sharing.

Sandra, you live life with so much passion that the ups are WAY up and the downs are WAY down. I don’t think you could live any other way. If there is one truth I know about you, it is that you cycle the ups & downs like clockwork. I take comfort in knowing that your passionate soul will attract something even better that takes you higher soon.

Lisa has firsthand experience with my passion since trying to rein it in on work I was paid to write and she was paid to make palatable to a fractious audience provoked some heated debates, so I’m listening to her, trying to take on board her perception on the cycle of up ups and down downs I lose sight of while traversing this apparently inevitable parabola.

Lisa thinks I can’t live any other way. Hm. That’s worrying. It’s also unintentional. Call me unaware, but I have no recollection of setting any course meant to send me hurtling toward space, then drag me back down to crash and burn.

The way I see it, I’m a plodder; I go day-to-day trying to make it through, maybe even get ahead a bit. I’m not a good planner, since that’s never quite worked out anyway, so although I do set goals and strive to reach them, I’ve had few that came with any clear path. Given my background, I have a certain flexibility and the dexterity to sometimes intercept the errant grenade lobbed in my direction, but I almost never see them coming. I can take a direct hit and prepare for the next … it’s true that just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do … and when a joy presents itself, I can embrace it.

I neither expect nor anticipate jubilation or despair … both have come as bolts from the blue … but try my best to live and learn in the moment (I once wrote, “What is life but a series of moments?” … I believed it then and believe it now in this moment.), following the advice of that well-known smart guy, Mr. Einstein, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” I care for my kids, treasure my friends, work when I get it, brush my teeth, pay my bills … plod along.

So, is this my “passionate soul attracting”, or simply the fact that life on Earth comes complete with gravity? What goes up, must come down and we’re just along for the ride … that’s a law, isn’t it?

Or is it true that gravity is a myth … the reality being that Earth sucks?