And there she is. This is a picture I took in New York City. It is of the Statue of Liberty. It's pretty famous. What struck me at the time from my vantage point on the Staten Island-bound ferry in Manhattan's sub-zero January temperatures, was how bizarrely anticlimactic it felt for such a familiar monument to suddenly materialise right before me without fanfare. No music erupted dramatically the minute 'she' came into view; not a chorus to be heard. A slight letdown almost, if you will. And it led me to wonder... perhaps that's all that life really is. A collection of moments like these, where something you expect to be dramatic... isn't. We voluntarily insert drama into our lives sometimes, because we cling to the idea that one day our lives will resemble those found in the moving pictures we spend hours watching on boxes. And so we attempt to recreate those moments on purpose, hoping it will make us feel more alive. I think life's more fluid and uncontainable than that, though. It will always surprise us, and any attempts of ours to box, control or self-predict our situations will inevitably lead to those situations climbing back out of those boxes.(Blame Murphy, and his law.)
Maybe it's about being ok with less drama, and more reality? Let the record show that in saying all of this, I'm not trying to remove all the magic out of life, either. Or to be 'a realist', who derives sadistic pleasure out of quelling an eight year old's Disney-induced joy. However I fear that our incessant desire to position our lives as more 'dramatic' or 'exciting' or 'intense' than they really are leads to an overwhelming sense of inadequacy, lack of fulfillment and failed expectation. Perhaps looking at life for what it is; no more, no less, is the key to contentment. Or one of them.
"You see fantasy is what people want. But reality is what they need. And I've just retired, from the fantasy part..."
- Lauryn Hill
(Adam Lives In Theory, MTV Unplugged 2.0)
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