The Flow
By Bret Burquest
William Shakespeare was a very
prolific writer who was mostly understood by snooty British intellectuals, high
school English teachers and people with brain damage. Most of the rest of us
who were forced to read his dribble back in high school didn’t have a clue what
Shakespeare was all about. One of his more famous excerpts comes in act 3 of
Hamlet – “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the
mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; or to take arms
against a sea of troubles…”
This is all a person really needs
to know about life. Unfortunately, reading Shakespeare is a lot like reading
the graffiti on the wall of a public restroom – it seems somewhat clever yet is
often confusing, but you don’t really care because you’ve got better things to
do than hang around and try to figure it out.
What Shakespeare was really trying
to tell the world was that there is a choice in life we all face. We can choose
to go with the flow and suffer the consequences (suffer the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune) or we can choose to go off in our own direction (take
arms against a sea of trouble) and suffer the consequences. Your third option
is not to make a choice, which automatically puts you into the category of
going with the flow. In other words, you can go with the flow or go your own
way. Either way, there will be consequences to suffer.
Most people choose to go with the
flow. They elect people to lead them, obey the rules, pay their taxes and march
off to war. They may not like it sometimes but they go along in order to get
along.
A few people go off in their own
direction. Although often ridiculed by those who conform they could care less,
and even when they’re alone they’re never lonely because they don’t need to be
validated by others.
Some people try to have it both
ways. Most of the time they choose to go with the
flow, until the flow takes them where they don’t want to be, then they rebel a
bit. But taking arms against a sea of trouble requires strength and fortitude,
forcing them to get back into the flow when the going gets too tough.
People who choose to always go
with the flow are happy people. Occasionally, they suffer the consequences of
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune but life is full of consequences
and they don’t blame themselves for their suffering because they were merely
caught in the flow of the decision-making of others. Plus, the burden of making
independent decisions is avoided because the flow makes all the decisions for
them.
People who choose to always go in
their own direction are also happy people. They face lots of obstacles for not
conforming to the flow but their suffering is of their own making and therefore
more palatable. Independent people understand that suffering builds character,
thereby making their way of life that much more endearing. Rather than allow
the rest of the world to err on their behalf, they’d prefer to screw up their
lives on their own.
Those who try to have it both ways
are always an unhappy lot. They tend to align with others who also want it both
ways, exerting group pressure by forming clubs and unions and political parties
in order to manipulate the flow in their favor. But no matter how effective
they are at altering the flow they’re fighting an endless battle because there
is always another group somewhere tugging at the flow in the opposite
direction.
Flow tuggers
have been battling flow tuggers since the beginning
of time. They are convinced their way is the correct way and insist everyone
else conform to their notion of correctness, right down to the correct length
of grass in your front yard and the correct state of mind from which you are
forbidden to alter. Flow tuggers are self-righteous,
rebellious conformists who demand selfless, non-rebellious conformity from
everyone else.
Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo
journalist and professional malcontent, once observed, “No two ideals were ever
more incompatible than the security of conformity and the freedom of individuality.
After the choice is made, the rest is easy – unless you don’t have the guts to
stick by your choice.”
* * *
Bret Burquest is an award-winning columns and author of four
novels. Contact bret@centurytel.net
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