I was talking to a friend when the term “Achilles' heel” came up. I always wondered about that term. I tend to see things differently than most and after reading the myths in my youth always thought that his ankle was his strength, not his weakness. Thetis, his mother, gave Achilles a taste of godhood, but the real gift was leaving him a piece of humanity.Humanity is not without trial or tribulation, but we have a distinct pattern of existence; we are born, we live and we die. It is a finite expedition. One not without peril or interaction with the environment around us. I never felt the need to extend existence to the infinite. If you lived forever, would you truly enjoy the small moments of happiness? Would the moments of trial take on any sense of urgency? I know from my life that the small moments are the ones that make it up. A smile from a stranger, a kind word or kind action in times of despair, a look of wonderment in my children's eyes. These things wold be lost in a sea of memories in a time line of forever.
Strangely, I never had a midlife crisis. My logical side sees this as having two possibilities. I have not yet reached midlife or the crisis of midlife is due to someone's outlook or inability to deal with the limited time of their existence. I feel religion feeds on the second. Most religions have a rebirth or a better place to go to when you die. My question about the “Elysiums” that are promised are these. Can there be happiness without sorrow? Can there be eternal bliss or would bliss become the baseline of our feelings? Feeling and emotion are always relative
Yes, I have hijacked Creative Thursday for my thought flow. I haven't been very creative this week anyway and as I sat on my back porch last night trying to write poetry, realized I currently don't' have anyone to write it for. As a shooting star blipped across the horizon, I tried to remember the first one I ever saw, but couldn't. The thought of Achilles and immortality took center stage in my mind. How difficult the small memories would be to obtain, given an infinite amount of them, struck a chord I began to write.
We all strive for a taste of godhood, but we all take for granted our humanity, I'm not sure which one is our Achilles' heel.
Other people would look at our situations and determine that because we are going through our respective marriages ending, that this is part of our mid-life crisis. Maybe it's not really a crisis then, so much as an awakening.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the divorce as so much of a crisis as I did the marriage and it had nothing to do with mid-life, just, as you said, an awakening.
ReplyDeleteThis one was very touching. Thanks!
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