“People say sometimes, timidly: I know nothing about music but I know what I like. But the important questions are answered by not liking only but disliking and accepting equally what one likes and dislikes. Otherwise there is no access to the dark night of the soul.” — John Cage.
An interesting way of looking at life is that it offers only once choice within itself — to live. There are numerous ways of living, but none of them are real or even metaphorical deaths. Everyone simply lives differently, making a choices towards that life either consciously or subconsciously. Another interesting aspect is that nobody is forcing us to stay alive. Yes, there are numerous unfortunate ways in which my life can be taken away from me. Short of that, I am living, breathing and and writing this at this moment because that is exactly what I want to do.
In acknowledging that much, it also becomes true that there is no such thing as a gift of life given to me. Life and living are choices I make, even if that life will only extend to the next five minutes, seconds, months or decades. It is a gift that only I can give myself. That gift is only a blank sheet on which I get to paint whatever I choose to paint. The painting could be a blank one, it could be of a raging fire, it could be tranquil. In the end, nothing matters more than that I liked what I painted when the time finally comes to die.
Being given and getting are two sides of the same coin of receiving something. Our canvases are so full of what we need to get and what we did not get, both in our gains and losses. To imagine a state where desiring more does not exist would be silly, as even wanting less is a desire. But, to see what we get as what we are given is a side of the mirror that takes effort and discipline turn our gazes to. Even in this so-called materialistic and modern world there is so much that is given, freely and generously, that it is a pity that we can’t often see beyond what we want to get.