It makes the well-worn AA phrase of "this too shall pass" all the more relevant, helping one not cling to any emotional state as purposeful, permanent and therefore, meaningful, that last being the most important aspect for if the flux and waves of anger, anxiety, elation and excitement are all as transitory as the shifting light why try to make sense of them?
Why not merely except them as they are-stand still--let them wash over you like a spring shower and subsequent rainbow.
This is what a tree would do; A stalwart, silent observer to all that twirls around it slightly bending in the wind, growing with warmth and sunshine, turning inward and slightly dormant when conditions are less than favorable, yet not clinging to any one state as permanent.
A tree shows no "longing"; it simply adapts. To what is.
How to live in a culture that revers those who long, struggle, work hard, strategize and achieve? For that is the value that is held up--universally by left and right, Republican and Democrat as "the way to be".
American Idol, Hollywood, politics, high-tech--pick your venue where these dramas are played out.
And yet if it's all meaningless, then the only purpose of having the benefit of consciousness is to perceive and be often amused by the twists and turns of events, the highs and lows, the triumphs and failures.
Observe--and be amused.
Observe--and be amused.
