"Quiet Desperation"

Look up the word desperation and it sounds bad. My thesaurus says “despair abandons oneself to fate,” and it suggests to put emphasis on "Abandon." It means to cease, leave, give up.  I looked up fate also and it means final outcome or destiny. Destiny is “the seemingly inevitable succession of events.” 

The words “quiet desperation” refer to Thoreau’s famous quotation, 

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” 

Thankfully, he ends this assessment with these words: 

“...it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”

So we go on living our lives as we will and leaving the outcome to the powers that be. I’m beginning to think that the “outcome” is where we are at this moment. Past and future may be obsolete because everything relevant to the present is in the present, the here and now. 

Take death. Look around and we have to say that everything dies. Even our sun will die but most scientists agree that death in the natural world is merely change. We’re stuck with life, but we can choose to be desperate in that life or to embrace hope and confidence.

When people say, “I’m depressed,” (even if I should say that at times,) I hear another voice saying, “Why do you choose to be that way?” I believe we really do choose our thoughts, our destiny, and by these choices we construct our fate. Every day of our lives, regardless of circumstance, we can find something to cheer about if we don't abandon our search. 

Mr. Thoreau, you may be right, but I suspect you are also wrong. I believe there’s a quiet majority out there who have the wisdom to make right choices and they do not do desperate things. They don’t make it into the daily news, but they’re there and they are not desperate. They have hope and faith and I think I hear their voices singing on another frequency. Can you hear them too? It sounds like, “Yea! Yay! Yes! and “Way to go, bro!!!”

Since I have this blog I'm adding my voice to the "masses" and I say,  Tune into whatever station you like. Join whatever "reality" you wish for and don't let mass thinking rob you of your choice. Be glad, be sad, but just remember, you choose!