I flash on one of William Blake's maxims from The Marriage of Heaven & Hell: The road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom. Yes. But what about the casualties along the way?
Yikes. There was a time when that line was appealing to me. I think of it now as one of the go-to mottos of my "sex, drugs & r&r" years. As they say, "youth is wasted on the young." Now, of course, many of my past adventures seem silly to me; off the mark, dead-ends & cul de sacs, lots of flailing & failing.
Luckily, I made it thru mostly unscathed, without too much damage, trauma or drama. Ok. Some damage, some drama, some trauma. Sure, I burned quantities of time & brain-cells. Maybe there were valuable lessons along the way? Maybe. It turns out that fun isn't what it's cracked up to be.
You learn what you really want to do with your life, and what you really don't want to do with your life. Our time on the planet is limited. If we are lucky, we have the chance to learn about proportion, limits, guardrails, picking & choosing wisely. Living lightly & with clarity.
What happens when a whole culture seems to revel & wallow in the excess? All levels of government, business, pop culture consumed with over-amped bravado & cheap thrills; gambling, drugs (illicit & licit), sex, money, lies, stupidities, violence, and racism? What happens when everyone goes off the deep end at the same time? "I want what I want & I want it now!" Like little grown-up babies. Denying reality & gravity at our own peril. Is there Wisdom at the end of this gaudy, cultural debauch? How many lives will be ruined in the process? How many carcasses left on the road? Is that any way to conduct one's life? If we make it thru, maybe, hopefully, we somehow come to a certain hard-won Wisdom? Hmmm... I think the jury is still out...
