“I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.”
~ Lois Lowry

Beckett unleashed a maelstrom of controversy when Waiting for Godot first opened in Paris in 1953. The play was a brilliant metaphorical exercise (in purposeful futility) that rattled a generation reeling from Senator McCarthy’s (and his minions’) Cold War communist witch hunt and the ongoing polemic of Jim Crow laws continuing to fracture the rights of our nation’s citizenry.

Waiting for Godot influenced an entire generation (raised squeaky clean on Father Knows Best) to look beneath the glossy veneer of 1950s prosperity and peer into the depths of despair, alienation and disconnectedness between class, race and political ideology in America.

And Beckett was merely scratching the surface.

But don’t we need to dig even deeper? Is Beckett really saying that external chaos in the world is a direct result of our own dysfunctional relationship with ourselves?

Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is not an enjoyable read (or play), nor is it supposed to be. But the themes Beckett touches on are as contemporary as ever—especially now that social media and the internet have redefined how a generation communicates and socializes.

But we cannot blame social media or society for feeling disconnected and alienated in day-to-day life. Because at any moment of the day we can turn off our iPhone, delete our social media accounts and limit our internet use. We cannot blame our friends, colleagues or family either.

If we feel disconnected, empty and alienated in our world, it is not our external environment, but rather how we perceive our external world and the toxic goop in our hearts that needs to change.

Life has a way of throwing some major chazerie (sh*t) at us from time to time. It is what we do with the lessons learned from the bad things that happen to us that, like a muscle, build courage and resilience, or wanton alienation and self-loathing.

So the next time you are feeling despair and disconnected in your world (even if your finances and love life could be better), get very quiet.

In that quiet space take a moment to listen carefully to your inner dialogue. If your self-talk is negative and filled with self-loathing the anecdote is simple.

Quiet your inner madness. Than watch how your world will slowly improve.

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Relephant Read:

Having it all Requires Despair, Disillusionment & Desire.

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Author: Sam Led

Editor: Toby Israel

Photo: Volkan Olmez/Unsplash // ukg.photographer/Flickr

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