Quirkbag Collection #47 – 07.06.26
I still remember the days of being 17, 18 and 20. Thinking back, it feels like a mere moment. Time flies in retrospection. In retrospection, the memories came without the pain that I actually felt in the past. The sweat, heat, ache and fatigue in the wilderness when I was in the army. The meaningless daily grind that has blurred into mush leading up to A Levels. The memories are vague, undetailed and far from the true experience. So where does this leave me?
Well, with a certain peace that comes with the irreplaceable wisdom of experience.
Understanding Finitude
There is a quote that goes “this too shall pass”. Do not confuse this with a similar line from “The Lord Of The Rings”.
There is a subtle confidence and assurance that comes with knowing that all things will pass, regardless of whether it is easy or difficult. And in accepting that we don’t control a lot of events that happen, “this too shall pass” reframes the present obstacle as just another experience in our lives.
Sure, it probably feels impossible to be “peaceful” if you’re skydiving and falling freely before the parachute launches. Or if you are riding a rollercoaster upside down at what feels like an insane velocity. But eventually, the chute opens. The ride ends. “This too shall pass”.
Now this is not to encourage skydiving or rollercoasters rides. But this is to say that the most thrilling, scary, live-life-on-the-edge experiences force you to be in the moment. To fully feel the depths of the moment, before it passes. And once it has, the residue it leaves is more than just your faint memory and the underlying emotion you associate with it. It includes the broadening of your horizon; the “stronger character”; that intuitive scale in your mind that tells you a certain situation is not that severe in comparison to your experiences.
With more experience, I keep coming back to this quote. Whenever a problem or a temporary challenge occurs, I think of it as an inconvenience to whatever goal or objective I am working towards. It acts almost as a razor that can frame the problem into its appropriate scale rather than letting emotions blow it out of proportion.
A Touch Of Wisdom
Ryan Holiday’s book “Wisdom Takes Work” reminded me of a few familiar lessons from Stoicism. Most importantly, we must be humble to recognise how small, flawed and finite we are as humans. If wisdom is knowing what’s what, how and when to do something, then most of what we do everyday goes against it. Being far too busy putting out the fires 3 inches from our noses, we’re always just reacting to things. We fail to see things through the macro-perspective.
To truly be wise, it takes immense misery, pain and suffering for that is the price to distil the lessons of wisdom. That was the case with the revered Abraham Lincoln. Choosing wisdom in the modern world where instant gratification reigns supreme mandates a strength of will that most of us don’t possess. It takes effort to slow down, to challenge our beliefs without feeling like we are “switching sides”, to contemplate and conclude rather than simply take the default.
With wisdom, or at least some fraction of it, we inevitably gain peace and confidence in ourselves. In slowing down and considering how ridiculous our frustrations sometimes are, we can seek solace in knowing our problems are mostly self-inflicted and mostly insignificant.
What Else Matters In That Moment?
Just how many things really truly matter at the end of our time? Framing problems within the period of our existence, it’s comedic to constantly sweat the little things. And that understanding contributes part of the peace and confidence in us – that indeed, this too shall pass.
Suddenly, your problems aren’t as frustrating.
The Passing Of Time
The Chinese proverb says that time dilutes all. How true. It’s probably why I don’t remember the excruciating pain, fatigue and stress from my past experiences. But simultaneously, these experiences enrich our lives. Not just in the moment, but long after the moment has passed, in ways that we don’t fully comprehend (except in therapy). These experiences culminate into our being. They become part of who we are, more than just vague memories.
The passing of time washes the intensity of our memories. At the end, it is said that we get a highlight reel of the most unique, life-changing and thrilling times in our lives. If that’s true, then we are far more capable of handling complex, arduous, painful and scary things than we believe.
Most of our days blur and get forgotten; we remember only several events. Not the faces of the strangers on the train, not the classmates from school, maybe not your childhood best friend and not even every single birthday growing up.
That is the passing of time. So with our great capacity to forget, to smooth over the bumpy textures of life, we quietly grow confident in facing new things. We know we have done something of the same scale. Even if we have not, we know that “this too shall pass”. If that does not encourage you to do more life-changing, story-defining things, then very few other things can.
How’s that for self-affirmation?
Your Peace And Confidence
For lack of an alternative phrase, the wisdom, and its resultant peace and confidence, from experience is not compressible. That means I can’t gain 2 decades of wisdom in 2 days, even if everything was written to painstaking detail. Maybe I’ll learn fractions of it, but certainly not the full experience of a lifetime.
The defining characteristic of wisdom and experience is discretion and judgement, both of which cannot be taught through text. Only learnt through experience. The wisdom, confidence and peace are then innate.
Experience, however, can be compressed by reducing the intervals between each “encounter”. In choosing to take on 2 decades of experience (of anything) in 1 decade, the intensity and volume of pain and struggle will definitely be higher, but you’ll gain the lessons faster. That said, wisdom cannot be rushed. It will emerge in its own time.
With wisdom, confidence and peace, where does that leave you?
With a gut feeling that you are going to be okay.
Because this too shall pass.
Click the arrows for other posts!
Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.
Teleport home below!
Enjoy More Serendipity Below!
