The older you are, the more the question “what are you becoming?” often morphs into the question “what have you become?” Something moves our vision from prospective to retrospective, as though at some point in one’s life, the future is expected to stop and the past take over. Is ‘becoming’ a cumulative process, a mathematical phenomenon with finite biological or spiritual limits, a bell curve of life, so to speak, that predictably rises and falls as the years add on?
People speak of ‘becoming more’ or ‘becoming less’, for example. Becoming ‘more’ is seemingly in tune with growth, enlightenment, Samadhi. Becoming ‘less’, on the other hand, feels entropic, a “decline into disorder,” not filing one’s potential, a failure to launch.
But — and this is popular notion — there is also a sense where ‘less’ is ‘more’ even when it comes to, well, ‘becoming’. To become ‘less’ is to throw off the unnecessary psychic baggage that burdens us, to discover our essential selves, and be One with whatever there is out to be one with: god, nature, sentient beings, your roots, your family, your planet or your cosmos. Take your pick. It appears that the One has a lot to choose from.
‘Becoming’ is also both something that can happen to us, and that we can make happen. In any case, it does not come easy. Struggle we must to become anything. Anything of value that is. And ‘becoming’ usually takes the form of a narrative, a story of a journey. To ‘become’ is usually to ‘overcome’. Things happen. We persevere. We learn. We change. The world changes. And there we are. Somebody new, even to ourselves.
Since stories have endings, maybe here is where the ‘becoming’ takes its cue to find an end point, a destination that sits on something stable, permanent, historical. But that really is not possible. Whatever one thinks about ‘becoming’, there seems to be a constancy about it no matter what direction it’s heading. We just can’t stop it. It’s a never ending challenge that is always calling out to us; “Come on” it says, “let’s get going. What’s your problem?” We can’t even give up! ‘Becoming’ is just relentless.
‘Becoming’ has no mercy. It strikes us even after we’re gone. We say “history will be the judge of that!” The problem is, history never stops judging. ‘Becoming’ continues to unfold in the memories of others even when one passes on; A legacy that shifts and changes as history ceaselessly re-frames the question of what’s important.
So, I say don’t fight it, go with the flow since it’s going to sweep us up anyway. The question is, what’s going to be our role, our bit part here. How do we become what we want to become? How do we indeed.
