Two Tragedies

"In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

-- Oscar Wilde

Fulfilled desire and unfulfilled desire are two sides of the same coin. The problem is the coin is counterfeit. It pretends to be the currency of happiness, but as our man Oscar points out, it is the stuff of which tragedy is made.

The problem lies both with desire itself, and with our attachment to our desires. Minimal desire is natural. We all desire life's basics -- food, clothing, shelter, sex, friendship, etc. And if we're lucky enough to be born into a reasonably affluent and healthy culture, those minimal desires are not so hard to achieve.

The desires that cause most of our problems are the Madison Avenue created desires, the ego-based wants that go far beyond needs, and are usually thinly-veiled attempts to use having to compensate for a lack of being. These are the desires for more, better, faster, newer everything! They are artificially-induced by those wishing to make a profit off our discontent, discontent that they help manufacture and foster!

Secondarily, the tragedies are based on our attachment to our desires. Artificial desires, like thoughts, arise and pass away. That is, if we don't continue to feed them. We really don't need to get our shorts all in a knot over our desires. Some of them will be fulfilled, some of them won't, but if we base our happiness on our batting average in fulfilling our desires, most of us are in for some major league disappointment!

To minimize life's two tragedies,the seat of our happiness must be where desire cannot touch it, it must be within. If we bring happiness to life instead of expecting to get happiness from life, we find life to be a much happier experience. We appreciate the beauties of nature, the comforts of friendship, the mind-expanding capacity of a good book, the energizing nature of basic human interaction. If we spend more time appreciating what we have instead of worrying about, or pursuing, what we don't, it's hard for tragedy to touch us.

Awareness, acceptance, and appreciation are tragedy's natural enemies. And with them, desires become merely passing clouds in life's brilliant, blue sky.