I once thought of the world as a mess, as a hodgepodge of incomplete works, things people began but never finished. Everywhere I looked, I saw unfinished projects: roads in the middle of construction, flip phones, tube TVs, gardens, elementary school children, the NFL draft. All of these things, indeed everything else in this world too, were not finished and would never be finished. They were simply building to a crescendo that would never occur. They were all projects that would continue to be reinvented, redefined and improved upon. But my view of the world, as I get older, is beginning to change.
I dare suspect(as if I know the minds and hearts of others) that I am metamorphisizing backwards in this. I would think that most people initially view the world through the prism of hopeful optimism and evolve away from that into a negative cynicism. As I live on, I think I'm moving away from the idea of an incomplete world and into the idea that there is no technological ceiling. There will never be an end to the incomplete projects of the world, but now I feel a comfort in that, not a brooding sense of failure. It is like a classical masteiece ending on a suspended seventh, and I'm waiting, screaming for that resolution chord to finish the concert but it never comes and we, the audience, sit in our red velvet seats, stuck in suspense for all eternity. But after being stuck on that chord for so long, maybe, just maybe, I begin to recognize the hope in it. It is the idea that we are never finished--not as a negative, but instead as a positive. Things will always improve. And with that idea, comes hope. It is the focal point that changed, I guess. I am no longer focussing on the incomplete, but instead focussing on the future possibilities, and imagining the evolution.
The same is true with everything in this world. End points are an illusion, like the concept of time. Ends are a means constructed by the human mind to force some sort of order on the world in which we live. The idea helps us feel fulfilled. Admittedly, it's hard not to be seduced by it. For example, I mow my lawn. I am finished. Broaden the time frame and I am not finished. If you broaden it enough, I will end up cutting it next week too. Broadened to infinity, I will never fully complete the task. Again, and simply for the fact that it bears repeating, everything is this way.
We define what constitutes the end of something. We make an imaginary stopping point, a point where we say, it will be done when....fill in the blank. But it's never done. We percieve something to be completed when we arrive at this imaginary end point. Everything stretches to infinity, and our minds cannot grasp it. Because of this inability to fully grasp the concept of infinity, we must create absolutes.
Instead of negatively viewing a project as never finished, I submit the challenge to view it positively. It is a chance to improve on it, a chance for continuation, a hopeful progression of perpetuation. There are no real end points, no fulfilling victories. The fulfillment comes in improving, in always having that last chance to do it better. It is what has given us what we have today. Everything builds on a foundation and goes on ad infinitum...
