On Pessimism

The weather outside is sunny but from in here it feels dreary. My brain feels light and my body feels sluggish. Yesterday I went on a short hike around a local lake. The bluffs were amazing. There was one part of the trail where each side was covered in high standing daisies.

On one of the bluffs there was this spot that overlooked the lake and this spot was perfect. The particular arrangement of rocks, trees, and bugs produced a spirit of rejuvenation and contemplation. It is a perfect spot to brood over the existential. Melancholy and joy, tragedy and comedy burst from one’s mind into a grand understanding of the human condition. I came to realize several things there:

1. Life is a series of missed opportunities;
2. A life of joy is one lived by living out those opportunities that one would regret wasting the most;
3. Humans are not allotted enough time to contemplate all of one’s possible opportunities;
4. Therefore, humans often miss out on the opportunities they miss the most;
5. Therefore, grief and melancholy are inscribed into human existence;
6. To deal with our grief and melancholy is, in one part, to embrace it as part of the human drama and, in another part, develop mechanisms for responding to human grief and melancholy.

I think I’ll return to that spot more often.