.. Everyone, no exception, is merely a temporary custodian of anything. Everyone has nothing more than temporary ownership of wealth, title, position, and so on and on. Consequently, everything anyone claims to possess, is as fleeting as every breath one takes. One breathes in, one breathes out. When that stops at the end of one's life, custody of anything abruptly changes hands.
Too simplistic of a view of the world? Or, of life itself? Too fatalistic, too pessimistic? Or, all too real, or is there something to behold other than what we think?
Just so we know this is beyond debate or to make sure this is impervious to argument, we look to the history of the world and the story of life itself. When Alexander the Great reached the last empire he conquered, we are told he cried because there was nothing else to set his eyes on. At age thirty two, all of it ended for him. He died. His empire split as his generals fought and divided the greatest accumulation of wealth, power and dominion ever put together by one man. Within two days after his death, the unrest that followed over succession began. Within weeks, there was a revolt in Alexander's base in Athens.
What followed over the next 2600 years, cascading through the centuries, was a string of empires, emperors and rulers, who came and went. All, just the same - every emperor, king, entire kingdoms mere temporary custodians. A few thousand years earlier, the pharaohs had their bodies preserved so that they may continue to have custody of their power, wealth and glory into the afterlife.
Though the pharaohs' quest for everlasting custody did not hold, the pyramids they built still stand for tourists to hold in awe. All reminders that custody is temporary.
The only thing that prevails is the story of life. That it has a shelf life that may last three to four generations is miraculous as it is humbling. Alexander's life was barely over a generation long; one generation deemed by general convention to be 20-30 years. Those among us enjoying the third or fourth quarter of our lives have much to treasure, more than Alexander could have dreamt of.
And so it is that our individual lives are what they are. Ordinary lives, some short, others long enough, or too long; exceptional lives that have made a difference to the world; self-centered ones that were of little benefit to anyone; and lives cut short. Lives lived and soon forgotten; lives lived quietly. Every now and then a life here and there is celebrated, rarer still is when one life rises to heights of fame and fortune so quickly and ends so suddenly - meteors through the night sky, falling stars one can only wish for. Just the same, each one a temporary occupier of space, custodian of very little or too much, but nevertheless only for a finite period of time.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” --- Heraclitus
And so we travel through space and time and no matter what we think or believe, we are never at the same place from one moment to the next. The river of time is unrelenting, so one might as well step into it and do the utmost as best as one can because the alternative is to stand by the river bank to watch it go by. Since we are all tenants, we might as well make full use of the lease - that's what it really is - and as travelers, we might as well enjoy the journey. Lacking in mobility, wheelchair bound even, or shut in within the confines of a retirement home, one's greatest gift for travel is the mind. For it knows no boundary even as it occupies the littlest of space.
No matter what one's status is in life, no one may take away the joy one feels because no one may dictate what it is we choose to enjoy.
From the Pharaohs to Alexander; from Mozart to Elvis, all travelers through time, temporary occupiers, tenants all, because permanence is not and never will be the nature of the universe. { Note: Elvis is an anagram of Lives. }
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