never say "every"

As I write this, my favorite song is "Everyone is My Friend" by Owls.



Who doesn't have a favorite song? Or more importantly: who hasn't had more than one favorite song over the course of their lifetime?

Somewhere in the haze of my early twenties I came more and more accustomed to the belief that I have a lot of life ahead of me to live. I've spent much time fighting the planning, saving, fore-thinking part of my brain that wants tomorrow to brim with hope and love in a thoughtless abandonment of the moment. The precious unavoidable present! It begs and pleads and demands you to listen to it. While the past is a finished painting and the future is an evolving, ephemeral idea.

I would not say that all time is wasted looking outside the current moment. Growth seems to be all at once a respect for our entire life: the constantly changing "now" as well as what's behind us that we may have forgotten and what's ahead of us that we may not see. So much is outside of certainty. No, there are no absolutes. Never say "never" and never say "every" (or its derivatives). I don't believe myself capable of speaking honestly of everything, everyone or every time. Attempts I've made to wield such concepts are fraught with obsession over their opposites. That is because life lies somewhere in the middle, and my brain is telling me not to find comfort in the fallibility of extreme ideas like "every" and "none". The great human struggle is to prove everything, but the most important things cannot be proven. Happiness comes not from being certain of our thoughts, but unafraid of their uncertainty.