Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end. —Walter Pater—
The end can never justify the means; the means is life, as we live it, in the present moment. When we read the aged paupers who die on a bare
mattress stuffed with cash, we recognize there delusion; but at times we can lose that clarity and find ourselves justifying practices that we know are
undesirable in the service of a desired end.
Means that we know that involve injustice or deprivation are never justifiable. We cannot ignore experience. We may have our sights set on a law degree or a sports car, but the experience of law school, and budgeting for the sports car are what we live. The quality of our life isn’t measured by our degrees or our possessions but by our behavior. If we have love and fulfilling work, nothing else matters.
Let’s concentrate on today; it’s all we have. Within this day, we have many choices and rich texture of experience. We can’t control the outcome; the moment is within our grasp. we must seize it, savor it; it is life itself.
If I were meant to live in the future, my eyes would have telescopic lenses.