Beautiful Life Of Excess

Moderation and discipline are said to be necessary for a good life. All the various elements in life should be balanced: work, play, love, friendship. Like citizens with citizens in a democracy, the parts of our lives can have their way as long as they don't interfere with the other parts.

Or maybe not. Also like in a democracy, the democracy serves the citizen and not the citizen the democracy, the parts of our lives should not serve an ordered whole of life.

We are the doer of each of the separate activities in different episodes of our personal stories, and the organization of the parts of ourselves as a whole serves us as the doer of one temporary thing after another.

We can love to excess, unlimited by friends or work or play. We can work to excess, unlimited by lovers or friends or play. We can be excessive in our friendships, unlimited by work and lovers and play. And we can play to excess too.

The infinite we seek is not pleasure in each of our partial activities, but knowledge of the unlimited mystery of what we are doing in this life, in this world.