Life is a cycle of beginnings and endings, and ups and downs and back again it goes. This time of the year makes us acutely aware of that, more than at any other time.
And so it was a serendipitous event that I plugged the movie “Into the Wild” on the DVD and watched, and reflected, and learned.
Saying that all that matters in life is the achievement of success is being very short-sighted. Life is not just about the positive – joy, wealth, power. The other half of life is about sadness, trials, and pain.
What ties it all up together is our ability as human beings to embrace all of that as part of this worldly celebration called life.
Like I did before, the young McCandless in the movie found life at 22 to be so confusing. At that age, everything is magnified and there’s no way to see the forest from the trees: Emotions run high. Ideals are smashed. The future seems so far away, totally uncertain and out of grasp. Love and relationships are such complex, roller-coaster rides.
And as many burned-out individuals would do, he chose to step back from it all and took the time to experience new things, to live out his adventures and to interact with all kinds of people.
But the most important thing is that he did not stop reflecting on life throughout his wild nature trip.
Time has a way of tempering us. The more we experience new things, new relationships, new events, the more we are able to put our own chaotic life in perspective. We discover that we are not alone in our angst. We discover that other people have more uncertainties than we do. We discover that people who destroyed the dreams of others are still worthy of love.
And timing is everything when it comes to how we act and how we relate to others. Because time’s healing power and the life lessons we learn through our experiences define our readiness for anything that life throws at us. If we were not ready for something at 22, we may be ripe for it at 32 (or 42 even 62), just because of how events and time conditioned us.
He read the same book over and over again, until one day - he finally gained enlightenment. It is not just new experiences that make the core of the human spirit; it is also our relationship with people.
He finally understood that his parents were not perfect, pretty much like the new friends he made and embraced with no judgment. And then he was ready to forgive them, love them and start life all over again.
The beauty in our relationships – with our parents, partners, children and friends – is not in the happy times we have with them but in loving them throughout the bad, the not so bad and the good times and back again. The wonder in life is seeing the beauty in all that.
