Life is a complicated thing, and one of our natural drives is to find some way of understanding what it is and how it works. I’m not talking about the biological definition, or figuring out how DNA produces enzymes and folds proteins. I’m talking about constructing a metaphor as a way of comprehending our time in this Universe. Doing so is not an easy task, but to some extent we all do it. So I ask you to share yours. I’ll start with mine:
As I see it, life is like buying a house. There are too many possibilities to go through them all. Sometimes it’s easier, and sometimes it’s harder. Some people get lucky, and find the perfect one, others are never satisfied. Some people have smaller ones, others have bigger ones, although bigger isn’t necessarily better. Some people are really unfortunate and don’t have one (hint: this is the analog of an untimely death). Everyone uses their house for different things. Some people are always in theirs, others frequently escape to other places. Some share their house with many other people, and some reside alone. Most importantly, buying a house is as much about figuring out what you want in a house as it is about actually finding one you like.
Sorry. Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Someone was going to say it sooner or later, right?
;j
As I see it, life is like an airplane trip. You pay too much, take too much junk along with you, are cooped up with unpleasant people a whole lot of the time, are fed indifferent food, have difficulty sleeping, and face the real possibility of something dangerous happening to you.
You can also get some really cool airplane wings to stick on your lapel.
But regardless of how well your airplane trip went, everyone on it is eventually going to get to the final destination…
Hmm…To me life is exactly what I see it as. It’s a bit complicated, a bit funny, quite a bit ironic and maddeningly purposeful. Everything is exaclty as it should be…and I’m just taking it one minute at a time. In your OP though, life is just like buying a new car off the lot. It depreciates extremely quickly once you drive it off…in 20, 30 or 40 years…some of us are classic again! Heck, we might even get the tags!
You know that oriental yin-yang symbol? The circle with the black and white halves?
To me, that’s the guide to a satisfying life – you gotta take the good with the bad, you gotta keep them in balance, and each one contains a germ of the other. It’s certainly kept me from going nuts whenever the fit hit the shan…
Life is like walking through a gigantic cage crammed full of shrieking, enraged, spider-monkeys. Baring their fangs, throwing unspeakable things at each other, and each one absolutely convinced that he’s the grandest spider-monkey of all, and that his name and legacy will—nay, must be passed down and dominate all of time.
Then an alligator busts into the cage, manages to kill and eat all the spider-monkeys, then goes to sun himself on a warm rock.
Awhile later the sun runs out of fuel and it burns out.
Then the universe burns away into nothing but waste heat.
If we’re following the Forrest Gump tangent, I might as well quote the spoof from The X Files. I’ve felt for some time that this monologue was the apotheosis of 1990s television.
