Make A Swan Song Of Your Life

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Marvel at the simple ease with which you live.
You have everything you need
and the freedom to do as you please.

You already live in Wonderland. *
You walk with the Monkey King **
carrying the holy scrolls.

God has entrusted you with his word.

All your worries amount to distraction
and declare your privilege.

Why not make a swan song of your life?

You can start right now:
make a donation in your name,
turn yourself into a charitable act.

I was surprised by the line about worries and how my worries actually declare my privilege: what I worry about would be welcome problems to many who live in poverty.

In what way do your worries declare your privilege?
What if your life were your swan song and every act
was your final performance?

© 2016 Nick LeForce;
All Rights Reserved

Please share your thoughts and comments below!

I caught this picture of a swan in ballyvaughan, Irelandwhile atttending a walking tour with the poet David Whyte in july 2014.

I caught this picture of a swan in ballyvaughan, Irelandwhile atttending a walking tour with the poet David Whyte in july 2014.

* I wrote this piece as my daily intent on Sunday, May 15, 2016. Wonderland refers to the Lewis Carrol story of Alice in Wonderland and I was scheduled to see a stage play rendition of this classic tale at the B Street theater later that day.

** Monkey King is a classic Chinese “fairy tale” about an unruly monkey that gains power and challenges heaven. He is then trapped under a rock for 500 years as punishment. Buddha takes pity on him, releases him, and engages him to help a monk journey to India to retrieve the holy Buddhist sutras. The story is captured in a book, Journey to the West, and has a basis in real life:  a monk named Xuan Zang did undertake a Journey to India and brought the Buddhist texts back to China during the Tang Dynasty (around 650 AD).

"Swan Song" comes from fables that depicted the swan as mute until moments before death, when it would sing beautifully.  Swans are neither mute (they make a variety of vocalizations) nor do the sing before death! But the poetic idea of a final act or final performance persists.