Sweaty Small Stuff

"Focus on the journey, not the destination."

What terrible, foolish advice

If you do not think carefully about the destination

Where is the journey headed? What defines it?

The end of the narrative shapes its meaning decisively

Aren't we always desperate to know how the story ends?

Doesn't the final episode get the highest ratings?

Should we skip to it?

Of course not

But everything that leads to it

Will reveal itself to us in a radically fresh way

Once we know how it ends

That heroine will be slain by a jilted lover

That hero will perish at the hands of a traitor

They will probably turn out to be siblings

The game ends in crying

Must see TV

We know that death is the end

For all of us

For every, mortal story

And yet

We are encouraged to concentrate on the journey

To move on, heedless of imminent oblivion

To pick up the pace, actually

To confuse distraction with action

Isn't everyone busy to the point of exhaustion?

Why is that accepted as a given?

Why is it celebrated as some sort of achievement?

We should not patiently endure indignities

When it is so obvious that our tomorrows

Are not renewable

We have the means, for now

To alter how things are

Not just for our own sake

But for the sake of any mortal

Who might turn up here

And struggle to survive

Until the end