Life as Part of the Great Machine

Sometimes there is healing in writing. Sometimes we feel a pull to express ourselves in new ways.

Where to begin expressing me? With words of course. Words are made up of letters, which we learn somewhere around age three. Letters are a simple concept, and some words are quite simple as well. Combine simple and complex words and beautiful things can happen. Some of my favorite words from the end of The Great Gatsby are as follows:

"…For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Our “capacity for wonder” is perhaps one of the most important things from this life that should rarely be about things. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald compares its size to that of a whole continent. We wonder when we look out at the horizon; we wonder when a loved one passes away; we wonder what went wrong or right; we wonder if we are lucky or unlucky; and sometimes we wonder what the future holds. What do I think of my future and your future?

“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason.” ~From the movie Hugo.

The Great Machinist knows where my part belongs, but sometimes I struggle finding the path to the machine. Did I get lost in the wrong shipment? Did I already get attached to the machine? Am I currently a temporary part on this side of the machine until I am needed on the other side of the machine? Or am I waiting for other parts to attach to my part before I fit just right? Do we dare ask the Great Machinist where exactly our part goes?

I think that is sometimes the enjoyment of life. We need to try our specific machine part in a few places or at a few different angles. Perhaps our spouse’s or friend’s part attaches to ours or ours to theirs, and we create a new part that completes a gizmo. The hardest thing in life may be that these parts fall apart over time. That relationship that seemed perfect falls apart over time. That person that we spent many years with is no longer there. The Great Machinist knows His machine is not perfect, that repairs may need to be made. Love is His oil, and if the oil is not quite getting the job done, more oil will be applied. Or perhaps He knows a new friend that can mend a part and reconnect you or me to the machine. My future spot in the machine is not known to me yet, but as I write, maybe I will find my place in the machine. Also an important option is that a reader might suddenly find something in my words that connects them to the machine or a part they have needed. Fate or destiny or fortune may strike at any moment. Our part in the machine may seem to be at its breaking point when it is suddenly better than it has ever been before.

Here is to machines that fall apart and get put back together in a more efficient or stronger way. Here is a tribute to words, machines, and finding the exact right place or word or machine! Here is to the human capacity to wonder. Here is to not giving up our part in the machine of life.