Saturday, March 23, 2024
“Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream; merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” This little nursery rhyme was published in 1852, but I’ve learned there are other versions. My favorite is “Row, row, row your boat gently down the creek; if your boat fills with water, then you’ve got a leak.”
Life is but a dream. Dreams are nonsensical, yet we try to pin down what life is! You can’t catch a dream. Nursery rhymes often tell us great truth – there is no point to life, no destination, no reason, no justification. What’s the point of music, other than to listen to it, play it, or dance to it? What’s the point of listening, dancing, and playing? You cannot get to the bottom of it, yet many of us are dragging bottom.
The only time I feel like I’m gently floating is when I connect and soak in the present moment. What is at any given moment “leaks” into my boat, and I become saturated, sinking into eternal bliss. To stay afloat is to become one with what is, to sink is to get drug into the drama and the heaviness that weighs us down.
Since I cannot catch the past, present, or future, does this mean it’s all a dream? I think so, but what’s the point of knowing that? Probably so you can be merry, but still that’s pointless. Staying atop the mire of daily life requires buoyancy and openness. If you sink, you’re trying to close it, find a point – bottom-dweller! To stay afloat, realize the open-ended pointlessness of it. Laugh it off when it gets serious. Let the urgency settle away, and stay aloft. Don’t try to catch it. Don’t get sucked into the mire. Float with the dream. It’s all a nursery rhyme anyway – stop trying to make sense out of it. Just be merry and float.