Half A Life

What more is there beyond these times, beyond these moments? Both the past and the future lie out of reach, so all we have is the here and the now.

However, no moment means anything taken out of the stream of time and held in isolation. Each moment needs the past and the future to shape it, just as it shapes how we look back at the past and how we look towards the future with temptation or desire, or so many different wants, needs hopes, fears dreads and doubts.

The uncertainties of the future haunt us just as much as the unchangeable solidity of the past can make us cringe when we look back to see all our foolish mistakes littering the landscapes of our histories. To look back without regret is just as bad as to look forward without at least some trepidation.

To be unaware of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is to live half a life, just as it is to cower behind your defences against those slings and arrows instead of advancing towards them and taking them on.

We should at least try to be heroes on the battlefield of life. It is after all easier to deal with our failures of heroism than to deal with all the mistakes made through our own cowardice.