That's some Latin advice along the lines of "bad things happen so we can learn"...I'm not entirely convinced by it...what i find more interesting is the Chinese curse may you have all that you desire.
On the face of it, its a ridiculous curse, having what we desire is the primary goal in life. Only its not ridiculous at all, the only way to destroy your desires in life is to attain them and a life without desires is pointless, when one strives for nothing one ceases to be.
In that regard, anticipation is pure happiness and the only happiness of its kind. Anticipating something that you never inherit leaves it unspoiled, its still painful but less so, its almost painful in a nostalgic way, we can sit and curse how life conspired against us to keep us away from what we wanted without having to face up to the reality that what we wanted wasn't ever going to be enough or more likely we were never capable of maintaining what we wanted.
Its the reason why Christmas Eve is better than Christmas Day, why the split second before a first kiss is more pleasurable than the kiss itself, why Opening Day of the baseball season is the greatest day of the year. In these moments we have nothing but anticipation and they are beautiful, the moments that follow never recapture their beauty so the key to happiness in many ways is to have perpetual wants that are never fulfilled.
For those who are fortunate enough to live to an advanced age, they will sit and think about those desires that remained unfulfilled not those that they had and lost, whether spectacularly or gradually, they can forever revel in unspoiled anticipation.
To lose the will to anticipate therefore is a matter of life and death
blogging this...how very post-modern
jay,
tell my mother i tried, tell her i really, really tried.
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