Closed Fists, Open Hands
There is no sequel.
A Calendar of Wisdom, by Leo Tolstoy. This is a great daily read that gives us all some insight to how some of the greatest writers and thinkers see the world. Also, how they see life. Every page is not ground breaking or earth shattering. However, you do run into a powerful line or two. today on May 12, this is the line you can find:
“A man comes into this world, with his hands pushed into fists, as if he wants to say, all this world is mine. The man leaves this world with his palms open, as if to say, look, I take nothing with me.”
Does this mean that we are already given at birth all that is ours? Life. A chance to live. Could that be the only thing that belongs to us? Many of us are born in similar fashion. Whether you’re a man, women or classify yourself under a different pronoun or gender classification. At birth there is so much hope for us all. What we can provide to the world and what we can do. As we grow we start to perceive what it is we want from life and what we can be. We don’t question what we can do in this one life often.
It is rather pointless, isn’t is. All our efforts to pursue money, a big house, a sports car, and luxury goods. As none of us can go with us. Or as the expression goes, “I’ve never seen a brinks truck follow a hearse.” We come into this world with nothing and leave with nothing. Regardless of how much money, power or fame we have, we all die the same. We end up in some wooden box or vase.
Arriving with closed fists claiming the world is ours. Yet, when we leave, our hands are open. Sure, this could be a symbolic gesture that has been inherited by tradition. Despite that, we derive our own meaning. Could open hands mean we did nothing with the life we were given? Or, are open hands a symbolic gesture that the one thing we actually have, our life, is no longer ours.
The depth of death is not to be ignored nor put away for a more convenient time.
Your fists are still closed tightly. Holding on to this one life you have. Make the most of it. Seneca, Stoic Philosopher has a great line, “you’re afraid of death, but how is the way you are living now any different?” Translated to say, you don’t want to die but you’re doing nothing with the life you have. You’re afraid of death, but what you are doing or not doing now is no different. You are destroying yourself, day by day. By your own inaction.
Benjamin Franklin said, “some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.” Meaning, some of us simply give up trying. We stop putting in our effort. We never consider that life was given to us for a purpose and reason bigger and more important than ourselves.
Jay Z has a lyric on the shortness of life in his 2001 album The Blueprint:
“One life to live, notice you get no sequel
So I truly got to live this like my last movie.”
Thought Provoking Question 1 : What would you change about your life?
Thought Provoking Question 1 : What can you start to do this week or month so that your behavior lines up with that change?
Dan Roman is a Husband, Father, and writer that releases a daily blog. A quick read on sharing wisdom and asking though-provoking questions.
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