Life Begins in the Middle

Life begins in the middle.

As inquisitive and rational human beings we always want to have a story to tell. And stories have beginnings and stories have endings. Storis have a plot and a narrative that proceeds through various scenes and actions to a conclusion. To an ending.

But life begins in the middle. Can you remember the day you were born? Will you remember the day you die? No. Because life begins and ends in the middle. Life is lived here in the middle.

We so much want to have a story to tell. A story that traces the arc of our journey from its humble beginning to its noble end. A story that represents who we are and why we are.

But think about stories. Think about your favorite stories that you read or you hear or you watch. They delight you and move you. They entertain you and bring you joy. But after we have finished experiencing a story do you notice how excited we tend to get when we hear about a sequel or a prequel? Finally, we say to ouselves, we can find out what happened after the story. Or we can find what happended before, and maybe, just maybe, find out the why of the story. Why did happen? Where did it come from?

But once we answer those questions let us recognize where we are at. Now we know the sequal to the story, but what about the sequal to the sequal?!? And what came before the prequel?!? Where does it end? Where does it begin?

Life begins in the middle. Life ends in the middle. Life is lived in the middle.

Does that mean that our stories are not important? No. Our stories help us to understand ourselves. Stories give the context in which we live. It is through stories that we give meaning to our lives. Stories tell us about what we think is most important from what has gone before. Stories help us envision the future and imagine where we want to go next. Stories help us to decide how we will answer the question ‘why?’.

But what does it mean to affirm that life begins in the middle? What does it mean to recognize that we will never find the ultimate beginning? Or the ultimate end?

It does not mean that we ignore both. That we ignore our history nor that we forget the future. But it does call for us to recognize that there is no ultimate beginning and there is no ultimate end. At least not any that we will know. We can look before to help us understand where we are at, but there will always be a before that we cannot know. And it helps to look to the future; to think about where we are going. To have a sense of what we are aiming for, but we will never be on that other side of the end of life. There will always be a tomorrow until there is not. Maybe we will get a warning. Probably we will not.

The lesson to be learned is that we must focus on and accept our life here in the middle. Life is lived in the middle. Life is the journey, not the destination. Life is the journey, the journey you and I take with those around us. We are all a part of the journey of life.