ailing with the wind and there's time for everything versus not everything happens because of xyz. Xyz being whatever causation is attributed to the what has already happened.
It's a tight intersection around these three and I've been listening to close ones, the older ones, narrating snippets of their life journey so far or those they've known for quite some time with the underlying premise being it was more like life happening to them than the other way round.
A certain acceptance is their voices, not resignation exactly, something closer to recognition. Since they speak of opportunities that arrived unannounced, doors that closed before they could reach for the handle, and sometimes relationships that formed in the margins of intention.
Of course, and a bit of a contrast, we now have this modern interpretation of sorts with this same concept about making things happen instead of waiting for things to happen/letting things happen. The main idea I think is to take control and be at the helm.
The individual mind comes to the forefront while the collective mind recedes to the background. That seems to me one of the hallmarks of our current era, be an architect of your destiny with vision boards and five-year plans. Agency is the highest virtue with passivity arguably a cardinal sin.
Agency as consensus
The irony that's slowing creeping up on the surface is all of these individuals converging to think alike, which betrays the spirit of what this hallmark is brought to champion, i.e. genuine autonomy.
What gets lost in this mass conversion to agency is the question of whether we're choosing our destinations or simply choosing from a pre-approved menu.
The older voices I've been listening to didn't have this paradox to contend with, or at least not in this particular form. Their surrender to circumstance was more honest, perhaps, than our illusion of total control.
The other interpretation that I've picked up from this listening exercise is more like watching a movie with multiple main characters and myriads of supporting characters sharing a plot that they know little to nothing about. Many characters don't bother figuring it out and will go wherever the wind takes them as long as there's a semblance of movement and the currents feel warm enough.
They did trust the story to reveal itself, or don't trust anything at all and just keep moving. Either way, there's less anxiety in their navigation.
Compare and contrast this with our own version of sailing, but with one hand always on our phones, cross-referencing our route against what successful sailors post on the interwebs.
Can't say I don't appreciate the exposure to perspectives I'd never encounter in my immediate geography. Because I've been able to broaden my sense of what's possible beyond inherited assumptions.
So, it's more of having this added awareness of both map and territory and then trying to determine when to switch lanes back and forth so accepting I'll probably get the timing wrong as often as I get it right. It's a coin flip.
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