Tree of life

Trees. Water source. Life. Growing. Blossoms. Fruit. Harvest. Seed. Tree.

This is one of the oldest metaphors across cultures. The cycle of life is in everything we do. From daily routines to the seasonal weather; from days to take out the garbage to yearly trips with the family; from Monday is bench day to power-lifters periodizing their training. From the rise and fall of Fortune 500 companies to economic cycles.

It is everywhere in popular culture, from the Dark Knight leaving his base to Robin; and farming pumpkins in Stardew Valley to a League of Legends champion booming “The cycle of life and death continues”. And of course, to the most conspicuous conception of this cycle: the birth, growth, maturity and decline of man.

“花無百日開, 人無千日好”

– unknown

Perhaps we try to embody it in games and movies because it is the structure of reality itself. As usual, artists attempt to manifest what they feel instinctively to be true.

I touched upon this in my first post but it has too many branches to fully contemplate in a thick book, let alone a blog post. I also elaborated on having two choices, Buddhist asceticism or the desire to attain. Well that’s just one fork in the road. There are countless forks in life, infinite decisions to make. If the ‘biggest picture’ is life itself, perhaps our first decision is whether to live or not, and because most people, I imagine want to live, then the relevant question is: do we have the choice to live? That is, do we have free will or not?

I used to believe that we don’t; allow me the luxury of bravado: that seems a tad boring, if nothing else.

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.”

– Andy Dufresne, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’