The Walking Manuals

Intricacies of defining moments; friend or foe, too many trip wires, one wrong move and you miss it; it all blows in your face. The potential of what-could-have-been now turns into nothing more than what it isn’t. Relationships are defined by such moments, a simple answer as silence, will ascribe the trajectory of a helical downfall for what would have been an otherwise blossoming friendship, it all goes spiraling down being flushed out of existence. A ‘yes’ for a ‘no’, a nod for a shake and days could’ve been better. “Nobody said it was easy.” Oh! If only Chris Martin knew how right he was.

Some say relationships are not a science of exacts, I call bullshit on that one, relationships are not exactly a science. There is not one correct answer to any situation much like anything else in life, there is no manual handed out at birth and no one has even bothered to write one. It’s like being forced onto a rollercoaster, the best you can make of it is to enjoy the ride. Yet there are so many situations where some sort of expertise is required, some experiential knowledge of living else we stand the risk of countless mishaps, mistakes and horrible decisions.

Some say the Bible has all the answers, not to dispute or argue against, but the problem here lies in the different factions or schools of thought concerning theology in Christendom hence the various denominations. There is not a single accepted interpretation by all factions hence the obfuscation of the Bible’s meaning. Secondly, not all of us believe in it or live by it, and it would be unfair to others who do live by it while the rest of the world slap them just praying the other cheek would be just as fun but being the believer I am I believe there’s an answer for this written within its pages.

Currently, I sit behind my laptop, looking, staring, peering hard trying to see past the cloudy horizon of what makes a bleak future. The thought of old age scares me. Yet some sliver through the fog, a glimmer of hope, the thought of many who have once stood where I stand and have made it and still making it. This only makes me admire and appreciate more these veterans of life and I would love nothing more to sit at their feet listening, drinking up every word, while they show their marks of battle telling stories of battles old. Fact of life; not everyone turns out good, truth, there are many cautionary tales in life, people who have gone off the far end and their pages serve as nothing more than that; a cautionary tale on how not to live life.

I have come to appreciate the worth of having parents and I would be proud if I could turn out to be half what mine are. After all they are the only true manuals on life; the walking manuals.

‘If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.’

-Isaac Newton

Nanos gigantium humeris insidentes: Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants