The Nature of Existence

I've been talking to a new guy who is making his way through a whole pile of whoop-ass chaos.  It is unnecessary to say that much of it is of his own doing.  Some of it is acute and can be traced directly to an action he has taken or to one that was left undone.  And some of it is the result of the slow, diseased, malignant creep of a life geared totally to self-interest.  When I'm doing what I want and thinking about myself constantly the result is a slow drip, drip, drip that degrades my relationships and whittles away at my soul.

The decision that was immediate required him to choose between staying in SoCal or leaving for a while? for good? to return to the Midwest and care for his elderly parents.  I, of course, have no idea what he should do and I made this clear to him.  What I can say is that much of the time when I sit quietly with a decision, talk to some people, do some reading and writing, then the answer slowly materializes out of the miasma and murk that constitutes my thinking.  But sometimes not.  Sometimes the choice is not, in fact, clear.  I told my friend that this may be one of those cases where he is just going to have to make a decision and then wait for events to play out before he knows if it was helpful to himself and to others.  Because he has done all of the necessary legwork to prepare for the decision then he is going to make the "right" one.  It may not be helpful.  It may be painful.  It may backfire and blow up in his fucking face.  We don't get to perceive the future with perfect clarity.

I really love the concept of the Nature of Existence.  It helps me to relax when I grapple with the fact of pain and suffering and the unknown.  This is how things are.  This is how the universe operates.  Why?  Beats the hell outta me.