Welcome to the amusement park.
“We live in God’s amusement park.” ~ Dean Koontz
I have this crazy idea that the modern world is like a giant amusement park. It’s overflowing with amazing plants and animals and sights and sounds, and alive with fantastic inventions, people and experiences. It’s like one of those lively summer fairs that rolls into town, which offers an abundance of food, rides, live music and shows, contests and entertainment. It’s not Disney World. No one is “in control,” scripting every experience. It’s total improv and we are all participating in it.
That’s life on our beautiful, magical planet. Infinite possibility and variety. We all imagine it, construct it, and care for it. We create the rides. We create the food, the games and entertainment. We design and manage the experiences, the aesthetics and the environment. Everyone gets a free pass, but no one can get out. And no one has any idea when his or her ticket gets punched.
This... is it!
Your life in the park is the result of spontaneous arisings and interactions of countless people and events, accidental meetings and unpredictable combinations of impulse, synchronicity and luck. The idea that you can choose a particular path, control your journey, and it will create an unambiguously positive or negative effect on your happiness is a complete illusion (just ask movie stars and lottery winners).
Your journey through the park is yours, designed for you to discover and live your unique wants. Yes, you can strive to live in a castle on a hill and direct some of the cast. Or you can throw a ball into a hoop, swing from trapeze, work the hot dog cart or sweep the paths. But you are still just one of the many, many people experiencing the park. Nothing more, nothing less.
And when your ticket does eventually get punched, which it inevitably will, it ends the same way for you as it does for everyone else. You walk out, pretty much alone, and you get to take nothing with you. No accumulated rolls of coupons. No gigantic stuffed animals. Nothing.
So what matters most?
Isn’t it obvious? Since there is no destination, nowhere to go, it’s the quality of your relationships in the park that matters. It’s your opportunity to discover your essential self—that fearless energy that aches to become what it is and which seeks exciting and rewarding experiences.
You have the chance to experience love, just like everyone else. You can discover something meaningful to you to do that lights up your spirit and engages your heart and mind, just like everyone else. You can love the park and strive, in a considerate way, to make it and yourself a bit better, just like everyone else.
Or you can sit alone on a bench and ride out your time. Or spend all of your time on one game that you don’t really like, trying to accumulate more tickets and prizes than everyone else. It’s a choice and it’s your choice, no one else’s.
Stay passionate!