it’s not you. it’s me
Apparently, there’s a gentleman in Colorado who, it’s safe to say, is pretty hacked-off by the noise created by Denver airport. How hacked-off, exactly, I hear you cry? Well, to the tune of 3,555 formal complaints in one year alone, that’s how much. Now, as an inveterate easy-going pacifier I have to admit I don’t think I’ve ever made an official complaint about anything, but I do regard myself as not too dissimilar with Colorado Man in as much as I am a bit of a moaner.
Yes, I fully appreciate the age-old adage of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, whilst expecting a different outcome, but there’s a somewhat cosmic defiance here that I have to tip-my-hat-to. As our absurd modern world rages around us I admire the fact that someone, somewhere is protesting, rebelling, contesting and moaning about it. Of course, it won’t make them happy though. Objecting to something that you can’t change brings a brief, short-lived moment of cathartic relief and fulfilment, but, as soon as it’s passed, the situation is made worse by increasing the attention you devote to waiting for the next occurrence.
Living less than five metres from the main Reading/London Waterloo line, my daily travel irritant is not aircraft noise but trains. Eight times an hour, sixteen hours a day my musings are rudely interrupted by these speeding commuter carriages. I’m on such good terms with South West Railways that pals have actually called me to find out if the trains are running to time on that particular day. And it’s just as distracting when there’s no noise or vibration because I’m merely waiting for the silence to be broken. No wonder a single complaint is never enough: the moaning nourishes the problem!
In such times of frustration I can understand why many appeal to a higher order and the ‘first noble truth’ of Buddhism is roughly translated as ‘life is a bit sh*te’. The word in question, dukkha, is closest to ‘suffering’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ and believers accept that whilst life can be wonderful, it can often be deeply unpleasant, and even when it’s ace, don’t ferbuddhasakes get used to it as it’s going to change sometime very soon. Colorado Man is obviously in deep dukkha, unhappy when a plane is landing, but equally so when one isn’t as he knows the peace and quiet can’t last. Me? Trains come, trains go and I’m happy enough with that.
