Life: That Old Antagonist / Fleishman

 Life: That Old Antagonist

Maxfield Fleishman


    Mrs. Ramsay says that "she felt alone in the presence of her old antagonist, life." (16) She sits there, dressing, surrounded by her children, yet feels alone with that great enemy, life. What enemy is this? 

    Every knot in your muscles, every spasm in your mind, each moment of pain, physical or intellectual, comes from the opponent life. A century-or-so-long sparring partner, life jabs one continually, until one's body and mind succumb to its punches. Each person, in this way, eventually cedes to life's victory. The antagonist always wins. 

    But sitting there now, before the waves, one thinks, is life such an enemy? It thrashes me; it serves me misery; it shows to me the anguish of my children and my parents; but doesn't it now, in these lemon-colored waves, also inspire unbelievable, indescribable joy? 

    If life is an ocean, one must always be weary of drowning. That old enemy has innumerable ways of dragging one below. But if one is to find the lemon-colored waves which redeem life, if one is to hitch a ride on the eddy which drags waters at the bottom up to the surface, one must learn first to swim. Ditching the metaphor, one must discover how to engage in the joys, the loves of life, if one is to withstand the inevitable punches which life throws. Without learning to swim, one sinks to the bottom of the ocean and drowns. One ceases to engage in the joys of life, and life becomes altogether impossible to bear. 



An Eddy

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 20, 2021 at 10:24 AM

    Lovely and optimistic. I wonder if the sense of life's overpowering enmity is directly proportional to one's sensitivity or vulnerability. It reveals Mrs. Ramsay's sensitivity, beneath the poised facade. She feels she's fighting a losing battle -- but what is there to be lost, what exactly is life an enemy TO? Perhaps the very capacity for joy that you describe.

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