Artwork © Richard Spisak
Chapter 7
As for the ultimate peripeteia of man, death, the fact that it cannot be otherwise should circumscribe our conduct to a less grave and austere foreboding and behave with some similitude to that of the Roman emperor Flavian, who, it is said, not only resigned himself to his fate but seemed to embrace it and find humor in the absurdity of simultaneously becoming both permanently eradicated and posthumously deified by being proclaimed a god. As for death not able to be otherwise, the materialistic justification for that is best delineated in the “Tao Te Ching” in which Lao Tzu states something to the effect of the universe being shaped out of a finite amount of matter, incipient forms materialize only after older forms, presumably solar systems and galaxies, have diffused almost to the point of dissipation.
Soil-dependent plants and fungi are parallel to the cosmos in this respect, and although animals exploit the living rather than decayed or eroded matter for sustenance, indirectly the same principle holds true: matter of one life form must be consumed and metabolized in the life of the other for the life continuum of the dominant animal. Thus, the old and weak inextricably make way for the new or dominant and, ipso facto, death happens for the replenishment of life, even if counterintuitively so, as generational regeneration involves, most redundantly, learning and stumbling through trial and error in the pitfalls of life all over again rather identically to previous generations of men. For example, there is that trust of emotions above reason and, specifically, inextricable faith in sexual nexus are ideas. These are the ideas of youth only battered away in the assailments of life experiences, if then. And as for old age, it inevitably ushers in faster loss of neurological connections without engendering new replacements, especially if not engaging in activities that push one into more intellectual challenges, more neurological pathways in the more intelligent regions of the brain (Aristotle stating that the intellect, as puny as it is, needs to be exercised continually to be stronger and the strength of it the only thing that separates us from identical instincts, passions, and emotional sentience of animals, and thus the only thing to give us pride in ourselves). Certainly, this reinventing the wheel continually with each new generation is not the best or most economic means of progressing forward any more than urination, reproduction, and children from the genitalia, with childbirth in the past so risky, but it is the only practical means by which the new can burgeon as the burgeoning, directly or indirectly, is from the decay of the old.
But this subject notwithstanding, the question as to the meaning of adversity and suffering during one’s life is a major consideration. As to the tossing, toppling, and twisting that constitutes a man’s multi-punted life, even those who assume that they are formidable buttresses for resisting change ultimately find such conclusions upended and unwarranted. Stable edifices we are not as much as we want to believe otherwise by erroneously imagining ourselves as solid erosion-resistant rock, for ultimately every man is a toppled domino when on the tectonic plates of aging intrinsically and changing indirectly from extraneous happenings in the environment that blow him around like a desiccated leaf swirling on the pavements of time.
One advantage of being toppled and broken is having to reinvent oneself anew by default of the dissipation of one’s customary perfunctory roles, their stifling comforts, and the complacency that comes about in fulfilling those roles so it has that in its favor even if it is hard to conceptualize adversity as making us wise. I suppose that if the concept of “wisdom” is stretched broadly enough then the humility of seeing our flawed selves in their full ineptness and transience is wisdom (certainly acknowledging the discrepancy of ideal expectations of ourselves and our surroundings and the mundane reality of it all, from the sublime to bathos, is quite humbling). Also, just as exercise tears muscle causing newer and more strengthened healing so does adversity allow resilience. Viktor Frankl claims that clinging to hope in seemingly hopeless situations exacerbates physical and mental weaknesses when the expected hope never materializes, and that true endurance and fortitude occur from acceptance and finding meaning in the direst circumstances. But perhaps most importantly, adversity is a test of the strength of ideals. If one could ease discomforts by compromising principles or prostituting integrity and yet refuses to do that like a dissident opposing a tyrant, or of less importance, an introverted poet choosing to be homeless rather than allowing his mental faculties to be squashed and dissipated in extroverted roles, then he shows that he is more resolute than ordinary men or the mien of men. As for losing people, each and every friend or relative one has, has ever had, and will have is like the friend stepping out of a lightened room to become a dark amorphous specter as he comes near, it is best to remember that relations are pit stops in which individuals interact to be fueled by the connection before moving on. Aristotle in “Nicomachean Ethics” says that in friendships of pleasure which are the exclusive friendships of youth young people change friendships frequently as these novel experiences with new people cause them to know themselves and what they like to do.
With adversities, so horrific in their scope from loss of loved ones, natural disasters, incurable genetic diseases, inequality and poverty, and human inhumanity to fellow man to mention only a few, only the insular in their affluent bubbles can for a time delude themselves that life is good or fair. And if life is truly bad and unjust for one human, one animal, or other entity then nobody should refer to life as being truly good. When things are going well enough most of us can block out how others, or other creatures, are ravaged in life, distancing ourselves by these realities by making such hapless entities into numbers and statistics but in old age that becomes less of a plausibility although those who are quite narcissistic and unloving might not even experience grief at the deaths of those closest to them.
Meaning is forged in doing what we can to make life less unjust for the hapless who have become enmeshed in our lives or stay in our proximity and whose plights we are aware of. As Aristotle points out in friendships of inequality the wealthier man cannot denounce the poorer one by claiming the relationship is one-sided and exclusively that of the giver giving and the recipient receiving when the giver receives virtue for his efforts–ethics never being a thought process ruminated on in the minds of one’s silent chamber, but an interaction with others in the hope of rectifying injustices and giving love and solace for without both and subject to the pressures of survival of the fittest any sweet domestic cat becomes a brawling beast on a rooftop. So maybe the greatest aim after all in adversity is it gives us ample opportunity to have compassion for others and ease their burdens the best that we can do and when unfortunate things are experienced personally to become even more empathetic and more understanding of the naked stark realities of existence. But even this is problematic because in helping someone must overlook others which is an injustice in executing virtue. Welcome to planet Earth.
Steven David Justin Sills is a literary writer living in Phuket, Thailand. His book of poetry is in many libraries in the United States and a copy of one book owned by a library was scanned by the Internet Archive. Sills’ work can also be found on the Online Book Page at the University of Pennsylvania. Sills finished his last literary novel The Three Hour Lady over two years ago, and until recently, he was devoting that time to writing a long war poem about what is happening in Ukraine. Most of those 25 poems including his most recent poem are at this particular journal. As his graduate degree is great books of the Western Canon he has been wanting to write his own ethical treatise, and this forum affords him that opportunity.
Richard Spisak began his artistic career as a light artist in the Lumonics Studios of Mel Tanner, a legendary Light Artist. After serving under Jack Horkheimer as a planetarium operator at the Miami Space-Transit Planetarium, he left to begin traveling with Lumist Kenvin Lyman, whose show Dazzleland Studios traveled across America. Richard later worked as a Laserist with LASERIUM and Laser Productions, served as a technical producer for the festival company PACE Concerts, and later as operations Manager and Senior Producer at WWHP and WTCN-TV in Stuart Florida.
Richard writes for Theatre, TV, radio, and the web. He published two short story collections, Two Small Windows, in a Pair of Mirror Doors, and Between the Silences. Followed by his poetry collection 7370 Allen Drive and the recently released STONE POETRY. Richard also produces “POETS of the East,” a televised webcast featuring poets from across the globe.