What they have in common, and why they matter.
I’m not a fan of poetry. Never have been, though I have tried. But there is one poem that holds a special place for me. It is a poem that has stuck with me ever since I read it in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. It has stood out to me so much so that I’ve memorized purely due to how many times I have gone back to read it. And I’ve taken a special interest in this poet’s other works because of it — none though compare to this one for me. It is from Robert Frost, and it goes like:
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
All good things come to an end.
Nothing lasts.
Does he mean to make the reader sad? Or is it a piece of advice to treasure and appreciate the gold while it you are able to do so? Maybe it’s a bit of both, or a simple observation that life, in all its stages, ebbs and flows and can never be made to stand still or frozen in time. (That’s why photography is so important — the only way to freeze a moment and be able to look upon it later, relishing the good times that hindsight makes so clear. But I digress). No one can really be sure, but as I get older and the poem randomly comes back in to my life, I more often than not would like to think it is a piece of advice to just treasure and be grateful for the moment.
Either way though, it is an important message to carry as we go about our days. We all know hindsight helps us see the good times we had just a little too late. Maybe the point of this poem, and the reason it resonates so much, is that it helps remind you to see them before they go.
And from Jack Front to “the Nard Dog,” it is a universal sentiment.
“I wish there was a way you could know you are in the good old days before you actually left them.” — The Nard Dog, The Office
There are the good old days. We all have them. They all go. Our universal goal is to appreciate them while we have them. I don’t think anyone can be happy, or content, with their life without this appreciation. This gratitude that we get to experience these good things. So many of us see life’s goal as happiness, which is why gratitude and its practice is such a vital and underestimated skill. It is very easy to get frustrated with life’s daily annoyances, hangups, and mundane tasks that make the practice of gratitude and living in the moment so hard. The little challenges that feel so big in the moment they take us out of it completely. Those little frustrations keep us from seeing how good we have it. It may be why literature, and poetry, and any sort of worthwhile entertainment is so vital too. Maybe it is the arts that help remind us, or at least steer towards that direction. To take it in before it is gone.
If art, in any of its forms, is good, it lasts. And for it to be good, it must speak to the human condition. The human condition of constant change, the struggle to enjoy it, and the goal to live it in the moment. From this perspective, it is easy to see what Frost has in common with The Office. The Office, though modern and nowhere near the “sophistication” of poetry, is an art in and of itself. It makes us laugh, shows us the beauty in the ordinary, and holds the little pockets of wisdom that all good art holds.
Nowadays, there are not many people who read the classics of literature. In generation Z, especially, there is quite a pushback to even trying to do so — the woke-ism that permeates the generation looks down upon reading “old white guys.” But if we can get past this silly notion and actually live out Martin Luther King Jr.’s idea of seeing past color (even if that color is white), then we can get back to the geniuses that are still worth reading. Dickens, for example, is one of these geniuses. His works, though old, still have so much to offer. I recently read “The Christmas Carol” again and found this gem: “I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value.” Yet another reminder to cherish what we have, and know its worth while we have it.
So, all this to say, life is meant to be lived, and cherished while we live it. Gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to get to do that, in the moment. Maybe it is one of the harder things to do, especially in the modern, Western, world where time is money and everyone is rushing to get to the next thing. But if we give some time to art, reflection, and the geniuses of the past and present, then the reminders to do so will be all around us. The more we read, watch shows skillfully made, and reflect on them all, the more chances we will have to practice what we really need in our daily lives. And the more chances we have to do that, the more likely we are to lead more contented, meaningful, lives.
Till next time,
Maria