People often refer to “the journey” they are on in life, whether in work or personal life. There is a problem with this metaphor.
To me, a journey is going
from A…to…B.
And what is that end destination B in the metaphor?
It feels too negative for me to think of our lives as “a journey”, certainly not a journey that we want to quickly get to the end!
I like what the British philosopher Alan Watts shared.
“We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along.”
“When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation.”
So when I see that giant glittering disco ball in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall as I did recently, it is time for us to remember to live life not as a journey, but a dance to our own tune!
Which metaphor do you prefer to represent the way you want to live life?