The Bad News: Everything Is Temporary. The Good News: Everything Is Temporary.

If there is one constant in life, it is change. Kind of a mind-fuck, no? There are so many pithy sayings, equations, philosophies, plays, essentially saying just that. So many that this post is going to write itself, far more elegantly than this walking shadow at the keyboard.

Eventually the river pours into the sea, and now there is no river at all.

Consider Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2:

“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties… And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

According to Macbeth (Act V, Scene V) the human brain, the very pinnacle of creation, is nothing but

“… a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Ironically, Shakespeare continues to be heard and signifies practically everything.

Speaking of signifying everything, there is a relevant xkcd (there always is; seriously, name a topic and I will find one).

So…

What do we do with this? Well, you could do what Winston Churchill is said to have recommended:

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

And take Epicurus’s advice:

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

§