溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
If We Come From Dust and Return to Dust, What Is the Between?
In the brief between of coming from dust and returning to it, what am I living for?
The dust returns to the earth as it was.
Ecclesiastes' recognition that "we return to dust" left the question of how to live before the necessity of death. The Preacher himself moved from this recognition toward gratefully enjoying the plain portion of now. The Stoic Aurelius drew from the same recognition a conclusion: since all soon returns to dust, do what is right now. Epicurus, by contrast, urged calm, since death is only a dissolution into dust and not to be feared. Does the fact that we return to dust make life empty, or make the now precious? The question still divides us, forking into resignation and gratitude before the necessity of death.
In an age where it is easy to push death far away, the Preacher's question — remember you will return to dust — makes the time between dust and dust precious anew.
Having gazed at emptiness, the Preacher paints old age in his final chapter: dimming eyes, trembling arms, closing doors.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Having gazed at emptiness, the Preacher paints old age in his final chapter: dimming eyes, trembling arms, closing doors. And in the end, he says, the dust returns to the earth from which it came. Yet he adds — remember, in the days of your youth, the source that gave you life. I feel this question names the time of what we leave exactly. We come from dust and return to it, but the brief between is wholly ours. Because I know I will return, that between grows more precious. With what do I fill this time between dust and dust? I stand before that question too.
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