Perspective

Man born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower.

Such are some of the lyrics in the Requiem I have been practicing. What a downer, huh? But for many humans alive today and for most humans who lived in the not too distant past, truer words were never spoken. Life was suffering, and death was a welcome rest. No wonder so many of the hymns I learned growing up were celebrations of sweet, sweet death. Our lives of relative prosperity, relative freedom from sudden and premature death, and relative safety are aberrations.

We still manage to find things to complain about. We're soooooo busy, what with multitasking and driving the kids from play dates to soccer and having to pick up the dry cleaning on the way back from yoga class. It's enough to make anyone crazy.