I’m wondering…about our apparent need to always extend gains.
In other words, when something is gained or achieved, we seem to have this expectation that it not only continue, but that it also should increase. And, it’s gotten to the point where it’s not just expected, it’s required. Nearly all success is expected to both continue and grow. If it doesn't, then we frame in terms of some kind of failure.
This seems true in our view of history, in sports, in business, in our jobs, in politics…even our religion seems to fall prey to this habit.
But, isn’t there a logical limit to this idea? Can everything, in other words, always be extended further? And, what comes along with that requirement or expectation?
Is there no reality left for the concept of dialectic, not to mention contentment? Or, is it always just more more more?
Too often, perhaps, we get things like drivenness and contentment caught in a binary-type function, rather than allowing for the possibility of there being both (especially over time). One at the expense of the other.
Does everything that is gained need to be perpetuated? Does everything that is gained need to be extended or advanced even further?
What about the idea that something has had a good run? It served its purpose. It’s time for something else.
…or, God forbid, someone else.
