Life is not a journey, nor a circle

Two popular metaphors for life liken it to a journey, or a circle. Yet both are entirely unhelpful I find. For there is no circle of life, nor any destination.

Every life is a unique set of experiences, to be lived once and never repeated. When it is over, it’s over. Life is not a progression towards some final state or goal, or a path to an unknowable beyond. It is here. It is now.

Nobody truly knows what life is for, but the philosopher Alan Watts perhaps came closest when he described life as a dance. And the point of a dance, he said, is the dancing.

One day there will be no more dancing. So I urge you, dance until the music stops.

Originally published on jacksonradcliffe.com.