[ghost]: 200.Essays.The Life Left Unlived

   Life is, in reality, little more than one's experiences, and though it is true that there is no shortage of bad experiences that await each of us, life is full of experiences that can only be described as amazing. However, the cheif failure of man, and by far the most pitiable, is that so much is left unfelt by so many.

   I know people who have never seen the ocean, never stood and gazed upon the flat horizon just beyond the waves. They have never heard the water roll along the beach as if the ocean were purring, the water itself happy and content with its lot in the world. They have never basked under the hot sun and felt the intimacy of its rays when all the sting of the heat has been stolen away by the cool ocean breeze. They have never sat on the sandy beach at night, when the water turns black and unseen in the darkness, leaving behind the sound of the dancing shore and the lights of the sky reflected on the waves, a band of light that marches forward in a silent, steady, and undending procession.

   I know people who have never been truly alone, never been left without disturbance for any real period of time. They have never heard "nothing", never known the brief but powerfully total silence in the moments of transition between when the world ceases to make sound and when one's own existance takes its place as the loudest noise in the universe. They have never known the full extent of their thoughts for all the outside distractions. They have never felt the stillness when not even the air moves and the waters grow quiet. They have never seen empty streets, devoid of all life and movement, as if all of life were being lived in an instant, but time itself was never allowed to move on, as if the soul had been lpaced inside a picture. They have never seen a world without motive, without good or evil, or without the discontent that comes from lack of change.

   I know people who have never really known the sky above them. They have never felt the blistering heat of the sun or the bright cold of the snow. They have never seen a snowflake, truly the at of heaven, fall before them, land upon their skin, and dissappear in an instant, taking the secret of its existence with it. They have never seen the night sky as it truly is, the round of the atmosphere somehow apparent and the number of the stars impressive. They have never stood and gazed upwards in awe, filled with a sense of insignificance at the size of the universe. They have never seen rain clouds beneath them and sunny sky above, and never thereby sensed the heavenly permanence of the light beyond the darkness.

   I know people who have never known the pure bliss of creation, the fulfillment one finds in one's own accomplishments, the freedom of art. I know people who have never tasted the joy of victory or the sweet simplicity of wild berries, picked and eaten with a sense of frivolity and luxury, never seen the life of a forest or the bleak of a desert. But what's worse: I know people who have all of these, adn do not care. They take it all for granted, fail to appreciate all they've been given for what it really is. This is life! How can it be anything trivial? And yet the sad truth is just that. They ignore the wonder of nature, reject it in the facade of daily life, and in doing so neglect the very existence they have worked so hard to preserve. As for the rest of us, our fate is the same: so much to live, so little life to live it with.