Do You Realize?

by Kevin A. Kuhn

We don’t live our lives with this much order and control. To represent them in death like this is a lie. A proper cemetery should have big, gnarled trees among crumbling angels and weathered tombstones arranged haphazardly. The grass should be littered with clover and worn down to dirt in places. Not like the manicured, rootless sod in this place.

Friend, my advice is to spend a little more time thinking, wondering, and appreciating and a little less time worrying and stressing.”

If one party is losing control, what’s the simplest way to regain their power? It’s fear.

Revolutions create constitutions and governance. Wars create treaties, accords, and alliances. We would never have the belief systems, the democracy, or the peace we enjoy today without humankind’s history of violence.

It’s not intuitive, but too much order is as destructive to life as chaos. Too much order doesn’t allow for adaptation. It doesn’t allow life to grow, to change, and to succeed. Do you understand, George?”

People love music, and they particularly love rock and roll because it walks that line between order and chaos.

Fear should be an advisor whose counsel is weighed carefully, not a leader whose commands are followed blindly.”

He made his way to the station and onto the platform. George always felt a little nervous waiting there, with nothing between him and the oncoming train but a thin yellow line.

My only exercise is jumping to conclusions and running my mouth.”

You let them make their own mistakes, as much as you can take. You put the cup of milk in front of them, even though you know they’re going to spill it.

Artists can’t take their creativity so far that it becomes unintelligible or unrecognizable to others. They must find that middle where they stretch people’s thinking without losing them.

Seek out the things on the edge, the things in balance. There’s a reason why we see beauty in the sunrise and the sunset, in the change of the seasons, and where the land meets the sea.”

If your fears eventually come true, all the more reason to enjoy the now.

You see, life thrives on that razor’s edge between chaos and order. Too much order, and life is stagnant and cannot change or evolve. Too much chaos, and life is overwhelmed.

And now I understand that the past is not as wonderful as I remember and that the future is likely better than I fear.