Every art, every philosophy
may be viewed as a remedy and an aid
in the service of growing and struggling life;
they always presuppose suffering and sufferers.

But there are two kinds of sufferers:
first those who suffer from the over-fullness of life
-they want a Dionysian art and likewise a tragic view of life,
a tragic insight

-and then those who suffer from the impoverishment of life
and seek rest, stillness, calm seas,
redemption from themselves through art and knowledge,
or intoxication, convulsions,
anesthesia, and madness.

…Regarding all aesthetic values
I now avail myself of this main distinction:
I ask in every instance,
“is it hunger or super-abundance
that has here become creative?”

The Gay Science by F. Nietzsche, trans. by Walter Kaufmann, aphorism 370

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism seem fundamentally correct. The first principle asserts that life means suffering.  This isn’t a defect. On the contrary life by definition is utilization of resources, of energy to sustain the organism.  Growth, development entails change, to seize circumstances, sources replete with promise for a future, given the type of organism in question. To live, to thrive means suffering. And suffering is elaborated in granular fashion by Buddhist literature.

Nietzsche writes to describe his aestheticism, a philosophy of life which makes use of the vocabulary of art criticism. The assertion, “Every art, every philosophy may be viewed as a remedy and an aid in the service of growing and struggling life…” is a bold expression of a universal truth: life is struggle. I recognize there are many other possibilities for interpreting your life journey.  Nevertheless, this offering by Nietzsche is persuasive to me.

Nietzsche declares that the fault line lies between those with a mind and spirit and character to perceive life as rich with possibility, to embrace the future.  In contrast the alternative view is to interpret life, this life, as a veil of tears, a weariness that prompts a desire for safe harbor, a refuge whether by religion, or whether by intoxication by any number of manias that are on offer.

Suffering is a given.

What is in play, the variable, is whether my circumstances are viewed as a deprivation, or as an opportunity to achieve further complexity of life, to make a more impactful contribution.

Is this not a useful description of your and my orientation, and that of the fundamental difference of life-style and ethic that presently divide our country? What heart beats at the inception of my point of view?

Do we have time for a song?  Of course we do.  This one, Gimme Shelter, by The Rolling Stones will carry us through.

Gimme Shelter

By The Rolling Stones

Oh, a storm is threat’ning
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away

War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away

Ooh, see the fire is sweepin’
Our very street today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost your way

War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away

Rape, murder!
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Rape, murder!
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Rape, murder!
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away

The floods is threat’ning
My very life today
Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I’m gonna fade away

War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away

I tell you love, sister, it’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
Kiss away, kiss away