We live our lives building sandcastles. These sandcastles are our careers, our homes, our communities, our skills and talents, our relationships...
But why do we spend our lives building things that crumble in the wind and get washed over by the waves? Things that get destroyed by other sandcastle builders?
The truth is, we are by nature addicted to the process of building these sandcastles. When we are building sandcastles, we relish in the knowledge that we are building kingdoms, kingdoms shaped in the image of deep hopes and dreams, fueled by our complexly enigmatic concepts of love.
We as humans are also collaborators.
Sometimes we encounter others along the bank who jump in to be builders in our kingdom, and it is a pleasure, for their contributions are investments not just to our kingdoms but to theirs as well. We never expected to be part of each other's blueprints, but suddenly we find ourselves sharing kingdom space, cups of coffee, meaningful conversations, and different methods of castle building.
Some of these people are major benefactors to our kingdoms and propagate prominent marks of their craftsmanship throughout our kingdom. Their presence and influence are unmistakably visible.
We owe it to these individuals that these castles are even in our kingdom. We gave them trust to counsel us in how our kingdoms should or could appear. We invited their hands to build alongside ours. We let them take up space and discover the inner workings of our trade, the secret places that are not easily seen from outside the well fortified barriers of our kingdom. If we could we'd contract these castle builders to be part of our kingdom forever, but the problem is that
We as humans are impermanent.
We are just like our sandcastles: prone to destruction, disintegration, and disillusionment whether gradually or all of a sudden. We may have built hundreds of castles with these people, but we find them on days suddenly no longer or less invested in building castles in our kingdoms. They have found themselves wrapped up in their own kingdoms and those of other castle builders who come into their paths.
It is only right, of course, that these beloved builders who've built castles in our kingdom's heart should share with others the traits and trades of their craft, that others who have less experience, direction, and instruction in building sand castles might have a chance at shaping their own healthy kingdoms.
We as humans are subject to disappointment and to disappoint.
We are like sand. We slip through the fingers. We are victim to the wrestling of the earth and the wind. We are unreliable and guaranteed to cause castles to fall, motivated by our own hands or others. I am not yours, and you are not mine. We in some ways are only slightly stronger than the castles we build. We can be stepped on and crushed, too.
We as humans sometimes seek after other kingdoms.
We go off visiting other people's kingdoms, sometimes for inspiration on how to build our own castles and to shape our own kingdoms as we study attractive architectural novelties--the details of foundations, the imaginative and uniquely wonderful designs. Other times we just need to lose ourselves in the illusion of being housed in a kingdom that can never be ours.
We as humans are artists.
Why do we build castles that crumble in the wind and wash over from the waves? We do we let others build and live in the hearts of our kingdom when ultimately they and their castles will disappear? Or, we cannot stand to look at their castles knowing that they are no longer invested builders in our kingdoms, so we take down the castles ourselves and create painfully empty lots of sand piles.
The fact is, our kingdom lives on with the memories of the various castles and styles of craftsmanship of previous builders since the builders and castles themselves have their own timings. For me to go on to build castles, it cannot be about you or me solely. It is with the understanding that I am creating a piece to be admired and enjoyed for a short, unknown life span. At any minute the waves will come crashing down; a storm may pass through; a vehicle or human may topple over it, deliberately or inadvertently. But if I can create a castle that makes someone see for a minute a thing that has been missing in their own kingdom that they never knew was missing but they have been needing, then I can find the strength and motivation to go through life building a kingdom if I have to do it alone, when in fact I am never actually alone. I may appear to be building with only two hands, but the truth is that stemming from my heart are the hands of all those who have passed through my kingdom, and these hands will ultimately grab the hands of those passing around me when mine no longer know how to do so on their own.
We as humans build kingdoms for each other.
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