Adonis Diaries

Is this a challenging time?  Any news?

In the 16th century, smack in Europe Renaissance and religious wars between the Protestants (Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Huguenots of France) and the Catholics of papal Rome, the French humanist Montaigne wrote:

“I try to get moving.  Life is movement of matters and bodies; it is an imperfect action of its essence and deregulation.  I work at serving life.  I brag to meticulously embrace the commodities of life and find but wind.  But are we not partners of the wind?  The wind howls, is agitated, does not desire stability or solidity.  Vanity is the wisdom of the wind and mankind.”

Amid the growing calamities and instabilities of our current world, people are learning to improvise, to adapt to ever-increasing change.

People are rediscovering the potency of weaker links in society, friendship, acquaintances, and in couples.  The stronger links of religion, marriage, and workplace are no longer available or convincing in our isolation.

People are discovering that life is a series of accidents. Taking risks is the name of the game:  The higher our fragility the more powerfully we act and improvise; the greater the magnitude for change the freer we become to evolve and resume life.

We are recognizing that our ultimate purpose is living and learning to steal longer and more frequent moments of joy, happiness, and pleasure.

We are readier to admit that active desires in what we already own and have is the essence of living instead of desiring what we are lacking or are missing from the past.

We are living in a most challenging period and we are adapting to be resilient and are resisting the moods of giving up the fight and struggle to surviving.

The 12th century Japanese poet Nokiosuki wrote: “I may have to live to the time as I long for this moment of utmost sadness and recall it tenderly.”

Note:  The subject of this article was inspired by the French book “The gusto for living and one hundred other essays” by Andre Compte-Sponville (2010)