Life is not a ride.
In the sense that this is NOT an amusement park.
Yes, there are ups and downs, sideways and frontways and backways. It often seems like we’re spinning in circles. But it’s more like a washing machine, I think, than it’s anything like a Tilt-O-Whirl.
Ups and downs. But it’s not an elevator either. It’s not like there’s a set place where you start out (like the lobby or P1) and at some point, one floor at a time, you eventually get to the penthouse suite. Sometimes, you never make it past the laundry or the mail room. And depending on the prison you construct for yourself – for aren’t they all just prisons, just some with better amenities – sometimes the laundry, or mail room, or kitchen, is just fine. And the best place for you.
Like Elba taught Napoleon, we are all in fact just islands. Some are in much better climates than others.
No, life is not a rollercoaster or an elevator. If anything, a better metaphor would be an escalator. Constant motion one way or the other. And you’ll notice that when you’re “trapped” going either way on an escalator, you only have a couple of options when you decide mid-stream to change your course:
First, you can turn against the current. You’ll be faced with all kinds of folks fighting you, pushing back, complaining that you’re going the “wrong” way, stepping on toes, egos, and delicate eggshell exteriors along the way. It can be exhausting.
The other option? You can swan-dive off the side. But like they say about Dallas-Ft. Worth, it doesn’t matter whether your destination is Heaven or Hell, you’ll need to change planes in Dallas. Likewise, when you jump off an escalator whether it’s churning up or down, the destination when you leap is always down. Gravity’s like that. Momentum doesn’t mean a thing when you’re in free fall.
But you CAN do it. Just stand still. Breathe. You don’t need a parachute – because from the moment you’re born, this body cage you’re “stuck” in is rotting. It’s a one-way ticket. There is no tomorrow, no future, no pie in the sky, no better world. This is it. You are it.
Tag.
You’ve got the rest of the day.
10 NOV 2026
© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.
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