Loose Ends

I read a study once– actually I don’t remember if it was a study, or what it was. But, the point is, it was the source of a quintessential notion, in my opinion. This piece suggested that our emotions are not reliable upon our current environment. I disagreed with this at first too, but it’s still very vague so bear with me. This piece suggested that humans, being the adaptable creatures that we are, do not benefit (or take a loss) from changing our environment. This study, or whatever it was, expressed something along the lines of, (paraphrasing to the best of my ability) “that only for a brief period of time will our location, our belongings, or our shelter satisfy us. Once we have grown accustomed once again, we are back to our original emotional state.” That’s probably not what the author had wrote, but you get the idea. This whole concept behind emotions being constant regardless of circumstance seems to parallel the cliche that “money can’t buy happiness”. But then there are those who always say, “I’d buy this, and I’d be happy” and we brush them off as if they are thinking too exclusively, but don’t we all do the same thing? Moving away for some sort of “change”, getting a new job, trying new food– and while I am not discrediting any of these endeavors and labeling them unnecessary, without a proper mindset they certainly are.

“The grass looks greener on the other side”, right? “We always want what we don’t have”, “money can’t buy happiness” and if we all know these to be cliches, why do we entertain them? Why is it that we move away? Why is it that we order something different off of a menu? We’re all waiting on some-sort of “change” to come. I’m going to jump to the radical conclusion that to recognize the change as a “need” puts one in a category of naivety, and for the ladder, to simply “want” change suggests that the person is mindful of the reality of their emotional state. Forgive me, for my intention is not to tell anyone in a horrible situation that “needing” a change is ingenuous, because there are those circumstances. But reader, I am almost positive that the vast majority of my audience is not in that that position. Mindset is crucial, Adam Savage said, “It’s about mindset of looking at the world in a playful and curious and creative way.” Taking from this, it is plausible that Savage’s emphasis was alluding to the fact that all of the world, and all of life has beauty to it, you choose whether or not you see it. I completely agree with this, and I rarely commit to agreeing with someone else’s ideas completely. Mindset is about mindfulness- not so much about being aloof to tragedy (a cynical person might argue), but about being aware of that tragedy and realizing that prolonged sadness or anger will not work as a solution.

Solution, everything needs a solution. Everything is a complex equation, and we refuse to accept the notion of inequalities because that wouldn’t be complete, that would suggest that the world is comprised of loose ends. But what if it is just “loose ends”? What if we are made up of segments of horror and beauty? And what if those segments are the result of our mindset? And what if our mindset is the result of how we react? And why do we choose to run away from our problems if they are just going to come back? Why can’t we recognize that we need to embrace the idea of embracing? It is time for us to stop running and to start adopting the concept of beauty in loose ends.