Morning: Desire and disappointment
Deprived of all desire, the human being would be like a tree without roots, without sap. They would not even have the strength to get up in the morning to face a new day. Thus the temptation is strong to make of the slightest object an object of desire, to "feel alive", as one says. One desires as one breathes – a person, a thing, a good, an activity, a position, a status. Previous experiences should nevertheless show that desire triggers a dynamic of which one is not master and, above all, never knows "enough" (satis), never results in satisfaction: fulfilled (apparently), it immediately turns to something else. As soon as he receives his gaming console as a gift, the child (and not only) finds it obsolete and absolutely wants the new one. In this sense, every desire carries within it the promise of disappointment. This can be superficial and fleeting or profound and lasting – and can even create, like disillusionment, some wounds of the soul. But is it comparable, coming only from our never-satisfied desires, to disappointment, sad, painful, sometimes tragic, that one experiences when one feels betrayed by a person, when one's trust has been abused, when a hope has not been realised? Is the disappointment linked to desire really "without resources", does it not contain, paradoxically, the desire, if not the will, to "start again", to "begin afresh", to trigger new life dynamics?
Robert Maggiori
