Today I want to share some thoughts that I had randomly written down over the past year. Back in May, I noted that life is kind of like a mirage on the highway. I remember watching mirages as a child, when I rode in the car from Denver to visit my grandmother and her husband in the mountains, more than 200 miles away. There was a long stretch of highway through a valley known as South Park, where the road was straight and long. I always visited my grandmother during the summer break from school. It was hot and it was before cars had air conditioners; so we rode with the windows down. I do not recall my grandma turning on the radio when she drove, or if in fact, there was any reception. Certainly there were no cell phones back in the mid-1950’s. Communication was done by handwritten letters and the occasional long distance phone call which was very costly.
During these long road trips, there was little to do while sitting in the car except view the scenery as it passed by. I loved watching the mirages which looked like a large pool of water in the road ahead of us, but they always disappeared once you got closer. They would then reappear far off in the distance. I think the mirage is a great metaphor for how most people live their lives. We work and dream and strive and hope to reach some elusive goal. Maybe that goal is to make a million dollars, or to own a Lamborghini, or to buy a mansion or a boat. Maybe our goals are not so grandiose. Some people simply want to attain that PhD, or that coveted position in their company. Maybe they dream of owning their own business, or attaining that dream job. Some people might simply want to find the perfect partner, or lose weight, or have improved health. Quite often, these goals are never reached. The highway of life merely takes them to another bend in the road around which they cannot see. In actuality, many goals are attained; but in a short time, dissatisfaction sets in.
Those of us who have been exposed to what are known as New Age ideas, have been admonished with the warning “Be careful what you pray for – you might get it.” The mirage can be enticing. It draws us towards it, alluring, shiny and bright. We believe that it will be there, if we work, drive, run fast enough, but like a rainbow, it will disappear because it is not real. It lives in the future, which does not exist. Only this moment exists – and only for a moment before the next one comes along. If we keep trying to reach the mirage, we miss the present moment and before we know it, our life has passed us by.
