Shave the beard and the will of nature.

Have you ever heard the story of Sisyphus? I guess so, but I'll tell you anyway. Sisyphus was a Greek mythological king who was punished by the gods and charged to perform the frustrating task of carrying a gigantic rock up a mountain, and when he was about to arrive, an irresistible force made the rock fall, so such that it was rolling back towards the plains, forcing Sisyphus to repeat the process again and again.

I was shaving my beard while thinking about this, because you know, shaving is somehow very similar to that. No matter how much time you spend or how well you shave, you can look for a magnifying glass and the sharpest razor if you wish, however, the next day the beard will grow back and will be there waiting for you again. It's not that I have anything against the beard, sometimes it is better to let it grow, simply that when you don't want to do it, you should spend some time on it.

Of course, this fact may seem insignificant to you, but only if you cannot understand the profound implications that such a thing entails. So, my friend, let me explain it in a very clear way.

We can use the same example as an allegory; shaving, on the one hand, is similar to any action that comes from your will, because it is by your own desire that you do it; the growth of the beard is on the contrary the course that nature follows, is, then, the natural will.

When we shave, our will demands that we stop the natural course of the growth of the beard, we face face to face with nature and we don't let it pass. This act, however, is not free, when we oppose the will of nature we must pay the cost, and in this case, as the action is quite insignificant, the cost is also, so we must lose a few minutes a day, a little time and energy, to impose our will.

Nevertheless, the beard continues to grow and man must repeat this process every day, this is because nature exercises its will every day and at all times, man on the contrary, concentrates his forces at some precise moments and then rest, unable to face nature forever.

Perhaps the example I have chosen, although it serves in its practical use to make the natural order easily understood by anyone, is not sufficiently sustained, so let us concentrate for a moment on what I am saying.

The punishment of Sisyphus

Nature has, namely, two ways of manifesting her physical will; the translation or spatial movement, and the alteration or temporary movement. Everything that exists is pushed by nature through these two forces at all times, since absolutely everything is in continuous movement and in continuous change.

This is the will of nature, and it is what we call natural (physical) order.

Wild animals live in perfect harmony with nature and with this order; the strongest participate of his strength to satisfy their needs; the smartest of his intelligence; the agile, the fast and the giant participate of his agility, speed, or giantness. But after all, none of these animals has a will, and all participate in all his capacities simply to satisfy their needs, being this the will of nature.

The human, as you know, not only needs, but also wants. The human, not content with taking what corresponds to him using his abilities, but uses these even more to impose his will on nature and thus change his environment for a more desirable one.

Have you not noticed that the human always tends to the eternal, the immobile, the immutable? So that's it. The human, when he follows his will, does not seek momentary happiness or temporary success, nor does he seek a passing love or virtues that will be corrupted little by little, on the contrary, the human seeks to live forever and always participate of happiness, of success, of love, of virtues, and of all other desirable qualities.

What is not stability always a desirable attribute? What do we not say that people should achieve stability in life? Is it not true that when we talk about politics, we look for a perfect government that is useful forever; and that when we talk about love, we look for a partner that is suitable for all life, and even after it; and when we talk about the success of anything, we always judge it by its duration, because if it ends quickly it is a failure and if it lasts it is something amazingly admirable?

As it is, the human aspires to such immobile things, however, as we have already explained, nature with its double movement collapses and destroys everything static, and makes fall each pillar that the human uses to stabilize. Nature never stops, it exerts its will continuously carrying everything in its path, and man, wanting to counteract it with his desires, is unable to maintain his will in time, and sooner or later is dragged by the currents of nature.

Let's illustrate again for a moment; imagine the strongest man in the world, both physically and spiritually, a true will of steel, a singular and splendid model of human capabilities. If we entrusted such a man with a simple task, which should by no means be complicated for him, but which in turn would contradict the course of nature, we will see that sooner or later his will, although of steel, would collapse before the natural order of things.

Let's simply assign this man to do push-ups, how many do you think he can do?... ¿100? That really is very little, nothing challenging. ¿1000? That would be good, however, considering that he is the strongest man in the world, this would be nothing. ¿10.000? That is already a large number, but I trust that it can do more. ¿20.000? ¿30.000? ¿40.000?... You know what? No matter. No matter how many he does, there will always be a last one, the moment will come when this simple task will be impossible for this excellent man, and that his will will be flanked by being unable to do one more. The natural forces, in this case the gravity, have pushed against him for a long time, and this, however strong and capable he may be, no matter how impressive his will, he will never be able to surpass the will of nature.

This will be the result of all those who seek to challenge nature.

Everything that comes out of the will of a man, and understood as will to every act out of desire and not strictly necessary, every act of will, I repeat, is perishable. Nature exercises its will for all eternity, man exercises his will for a limited time, when it inevitably tires, nature will overpower.

Hercules diverting the Course of the River Alpheus

Now, listening to this someone could believe that I am opposed to the will, it's not like this, and nobody should do it, because the will is not good or bad per se, all this is about understanding that everything that is born by the will of us, sooner or later will die, and therefore, if such action is intended to be enduring, failure will always be the result.

If we oppose the will we should stop doing all those acts that are born of desire and not of necessity, which would involve many things that we usually don't think about, because we don't realize in how many little things we spend time and energy on a daily basis due to our will. The example of the beard is still valid, if we completely reject the will, we should leave the beard to grow, as well as all the body hair, we should not brush our teeth or bathe, we should not clean our house, and ultimately, we would lower ourselves to the degree of simply animal, and not that which belongs to us, which is that of a rational animal.

So, it's not about remove the will, it's about using it in the least possible amount of futilities, in such a way that we save time and energy to be used in what we really want, letting in all these questions nature follow its course, which, after all, will be the best.

But let's turn our heads now to the consequences that what we have said so far implies with all necessity.

This modern society that we have created; all this to what we call "civilization"; each of these blocks that we have placed in the hope that they remain upright and replace the inherent movement of nature; all human colonies that have formed in places where the conditions for such are not optimal; all this artifice that aims to supplant the wild environment and make it friendly; all this will sooner or later collapse.

Have not you noticed what happens when we don't clean our house? This as quickly as we neglect it is filled with all kinds of insects, which little by little and diligently seek to make a place in the structure. The grass grows and grows until it invades the house and the roads. And if we abandon it completely, among the fauna, the flora, and the climate, a conspiracy is made to tear down the house, causing it little by little to return to the ground on which it stood.

This is true in all cities and in all human settlements. There is a constant expenditure of men's will to keep all natural forces at bay; we must avoid that the grass takes over the road or insects invade our houses, we must also avoid that climatic conditions are more than temporary, and we must even spend time and energy to get rid of the same problems that we have created, like the garbage, all this to make our environment more friendly, because it's not a matter of necessity.

I said that the will of men can never surpass that of nature, this civilization, contrary to what many want to think, is not the exception.

Have you heard the story of the abandoned village of Houtouwan? This is a small fishing village in China that was abandoned in the early 90s, and which in less than three decades has been devoured almost completely by nature. Some images will be more useful than my words.

Of course, not all places will be invaded so quickly by nature, although not all will look so good when they do. Remember that it was abandoned less than 30 years ago.

It does not matter if in the coming years we reach Mars, or if in the coming decades we reach Neptune. No matter the technological or material progress. No matter the development of the armaments or space industries. Sooner or later, the man's will, who is the one who directs the whole process, will not be able anymore. Sooner or later, the arms of the strongest man in the world will not be able to stretch once again.

I'm not saying that this civilization is going to fall now, I'm not saying it's going to fall in the next few decades, I'm not saying, in fact, any amount of time, because the number of push-ups is not important, what I'm saying is that what was done by the will of man will fall sooner or later, because it's intrinsically perishable.

But what?! How much has happened? It seems that I have lost the conception of time and nature has made its own with me. My beard is long again and it's time to shave it, it seems that everything physical is temporary and our attempts to avoid such movement don't work, so for now, I'll have to leave this here and go shave again.

---

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7