Trying to Make Sense

Cartoon by Hartley Lin

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"I tried to make sense of things.
Now that I think about it, I have always tried.
It could be my epitaph.
LEO GURSKY: HE TRIED TO MAKE SENSE."

From The History of Love (121)
By Nicole Krauss

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My mother had . . . "that cross inquiring look, as if she was going to pull up shortly and demand that everything make sense." (107)

My friend Jerry . . . "hated people using big words, taking about things outside of their own lives . . . trying to tie things together. Since these had been great pastimes of mine, why did he not hate me?" (241)

"The hope of accuracy we bring to such tasks is crazy, heartbreaking. And no list could hold what I wanted, for what I wanted was every last thing, every layer of speech and thought, stroke of light on bark or walls, every smell, pothole, pain, crack, delusion, held still and held together – radiant, everlasting." (276)

"I read 'The Life of Charlotte Bronte' . . . and . . . dreamed a nineteenth-century sort of life, walks and studying, rectitude, courtesy, maidenhood, peacefulness." (212)

From Lives of Girls and Women
By Alice Munro

[and from Who Do You Think You Are?]

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On the other hand . . .
"In one of the first teachings I ever heard, the teacher said, “I don’t know why you came here, but I want to tell you right now that the basis of this whole teaching is that you’re never going to get everything together.” I felt a little like he had just slapped me in the face or thrown cold water over my head. But I’ve always remembered it.

He said, “You’re never going to get it all together.” There isn’t going to be some precious future time when all the loose ends will be tied up. Even though it was shocking to me, it rang true. One of the things that keeps us unhappy is this continual searching for pleasure or security, searching for a little more comfortable situation, either at the domestic level or at the spiritual level or at the level of mental peace.”

From Start Where You Are:
A Guide to Compassionate Living
By Pema Chodron

[emphasis added]