Endings Are Beautiful
I’m not much of an early riser. Even despite the number of studies that morning people become more successful in life, I can’t just do it. I rarely see and appreciate the beauty of the sunrise that most normal people do. I, and the entire hard-working Editorial Board and members of the Production team, who leave work at dusk, however, get to see sunsets every single day - and we think they are just as powerful and beautiful.
For thousands of years in literature, sunsets have always been used as a common symbolism for ‘endings’. And it isn’t hard to tell why. The soft but striking reds and oranges that speak life and passion, drawing energy and vigor from the sun. The eerie purple and indigo gradient that symbolizes an anxious transition. And the night sky darkness, slowly, but inevitably creeping in like death itself. Sunsets like this give you a poignant, nostalgic feeling. A feeling that seems to overwhelm you at first, but you can’t seem to understand it very well because of the contradicting nature of beauty and death.
Don’t we all want something beautiful to last forever? We wish for a flower that never withers, a book with unending letters, even television and movie series we wish would air forever. We enjoy so much the substance and value of these things that we irrationally want to immerse ourselves in experiencing it indefinitely. But as we slowly get a grip back to the real world, we realize that no matter how much we enjoyed something, we can never truly experience its power unless it comes to a conclusion. We realize that we can’t force things to last longer than they are supposed to without having them lose their strength and beauty. Now we’re not here to explain Thermodynamic laws and physics, but we do know that as humans, we would rather want to see something end, than to see it gradually fall into disorder and ruin.
As horrid as it may sound, the same is true with how a lot of people look at their own lives. Once they believe that the phase of their peak power, usefulness, and beauty has gone or has never been achieved, they may choose to just end it all than to see themselves in a lesser state of happiness and satisfaction. I think, in a way, all of us can benefit when we learn how to appreciate the process and the journey of our lives and stop thinking about what we would feel at the end until we actually reach the end. As I see young people frantically worrying about their future all the time, giving themselves harsh life deadlines set by social media and Instagram models, it would be wonderful if everyone can stop obsessing about our borrowed definition of success. Sure, a sunset will remind you that the end is inevitable after a long day, but it also reminds us that no matter how bad our day can be, there will always be a beautiful ending.
Endings are beautiful. They give us that last bit of insatiable desire and leave us with a warm feeling of satisfaction and peace. Let me also end this message with a quote from Leonardo da Vinci. “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent deserves a happy death.”
