Middle Life Crysis As Myth и прочие мудризмы

Results from this particular study have shown that, contrary to some research, well-being, defined by levels of life satisfaction, esteem, depression, and marital satisfaction, did not decline from age 36 to 66 years of age. Instead, the well-being of women living in Utah remained stable.The idea that women experience a "midlife crisis" in which they are depressed and experience less productivity, fewer opportunities for growth, and decreased desire to move into new arenas seems to be a myth for women in this study. (The Empty-Nest Syndrome Revisited... by Kay T. Rawson et al. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, Summer, 1996)


It is not that things are illusory, but their separateness in the fabric of Reality is illusory (Anon).


The highest good is like water. Water gives life to ten thousand things and does not strive. It flows in places men reject and so it is like the Tao. Lao Tzu


...If the universe is a living thing, then every entity within it will be related to the whole as limbs and organs. And, as the efficient functioning of the body is conditional upon the officient working of each of its components, so the macrocosm itself has ot be maintained in a state of equilibtium.
The idea is, of course, inherent in the Indian concept of Dharma. Interpreted by Buddists as the 'Law of Cause and Effect', it teaches that no act, however trivial, takes place in isolation. No matter how tiny the pebble, the ripples it sets up will radiate outwards to the very margin of the pond. Every cause, by effecting the macrocosm, not only reaches back to the causer, but to others as well.
I slightly different form it is present in Chinese Taoism. To the Taoist the entire universe, including the human individual, is a vortex of energies and rhythms - the Tao - which are in a constant state of flux. The life-task of the individual is to become attuned to these, both in himself and in the external world.
This, in its turn, brings to mind the Greek idea of 'Cosmos' where again the universe and everything in it is perceived as a total unity...
Aware of the total interdependence of the universe in all its parts, much of the shaman's effort is directed towards ensuring that every endeavour is brought into alignment with the Cosmos....(Shamanism. The Foundations of Magic by Ward Rutherford, 1986)


"All Americans believe that they are born fishermen. For a man to admit to a distaste for fishing would be like denouncing mother-love and hating moonlight."
                                                                 John Steinbeck -1954