Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring. - Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin |
This is the end, beautiful friend. / This is the end, my only friend, the end / Of our elaborate plans, the end. / Of everything that stands, the end. - The Doors, The End |
If you think of life in circular terms, then there really are no endings or beginnings. (Or should it be "beginnings or endings"?) Maybe you can't wrap your head around life as being circular, choosing instead to see our existence as an inevitable march from "A" to "B." If you compromise, you might see life as more of an arc, or a pyramid like the one Freytag envisioned to help us understand the structure of a story.
Regardless of life's shape, we can look pick out points that can be definitively plotted as "beginnings" and "endings." Our children are born. Our parents die. We have first dates, and we dissolve marriages. We start with appetizers, and end with dessert (mostly).
But if we can accept that life is circular, then a definable beginning or end becomes blurry, and that makes sense. Can you begin something without moving away from something else? In many cultures, death - the ultimate ending from a biological standpoint - simply marks the beginning of the unknown (and even this has been challenged by The Lion King... "and it moves us all").
Regardless of life's shape, we can look pick out points that can be definitively plotted as "beginnings" and "endings." Our children are born. Our parents die. We have first dates, and we dissolve marriages. We start with appetizers, and end with dessert (mostly).
But if we can accept that life is circular, then a definable beginning or end becomes blurry, and that makes sense. Can you begin something without moving away from something else? In many cultures, death - the ultimate ending from a biological standpoint - simply marks the beginning of the unknown (and even this has been challenged by The Lion King... "and it moves us all").
Header art by T. Guzzio. Original photo by M. Bliss.
