The Things That Never Come

"Life is the shit that happens when you're waiting for the things that never come." - Lester Freamon from The Wire

This quote from HBO's The Wire struck me the first time I heard it, and it recurs to me periodically when I have a moment of reflection. No one would dispute that life is the shit that happens, but what are those things that never come? It doesn't take long to intuitively grasp what they are: There's never enough money, never enough possessions and never enough prestige. So much of our mental capacity spent chasing what's never going to make us feel fulfilled. What does make us feel fulfilled? Good friends and family, giving to others, forgiving oneself. This is the shit that happens, or can easily happen, if you're open to it. No need to chase, no need to stress. That phrase "the things that never come" may ring sadly in your ears, but when it did for me, I asked myself why. It wasn't because the totality of my life was awful. On the contrary, any attempt at objectifying the quality of my life physically and emotionally results in an overall positive conclusion. I realized that the sadness was nothing more than a generally vague, let down feeling of not achieving ambition- not a specific goal or style of life- just the concept of disappointed ambition in general. It was the nagging voice of my ego, the constant complainer that things are not good enough. But my ego is wrong. There's no need to 'wait' because 'those things' will always be late!