In his majestic Four Quartets, the poet T S Elliot had this killer line: “Humankind cannot bear too much reality.”  

It’s generally accepted as a commentary on the frailty of the human condition: that we, as a species, routinely prefer to avoid or escape hard truths by not confronting them. We’d rather duck into a good book, or social media, than meet the here and now, the tedium of ordinary life. 

Elliot was right, of course, which is why he’s widely considered an insightful man. It’s not hard to see why: life has a habit of handing you lemons and not everyone’s heard of lemonade. 

The writer Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) had a sardonic eye as well, but he was prima facie suspicious about reality because “it continues to ruin my life.”  Indeed, he’s reputed for one of the most cynical observations about living. “That’s one of the remarkable things about life: it’s never so bad that it can’t get worse.”  

To the ancient Hindu philosophers, all life was maya (illusion). The ever-pragmatic Albert Einstein agreed, thoughtfully adding, however, that the illusion “was persistent.” A novelist with the unfortunate name of Philip K Dick thought Einstein was right in that respect:  “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, refuses to go away.”  

The novelist Tom Clancy came up with a startling way to distinguish fiction from reality; “Fiction has to make sense.” By extension, reality can be, and often is, nonsensical. If you apply this, say, to Donald Trump it makes perfect sense. 

To the Donald, multi-tasking was holding two contradictory ideas in a single lie at any one time.  Example: “While Bette Midler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always believe in being politically  correct.”

He thought he was being gallant, even chivalrous. Ms Midler’s response was, apparently, unprintable. It seemed she could only take his reality in very small doses. 

Trump makes Malaysians feel less worried about their country and the state of their politicians.

Even so, every so often I’m plagued by doubt. We are all supposed to be shaped by life’s experiences so that we emerge stronger and wiser. 

That’s why we hear of such dicta as “We live and learn.” But I’m less convinced about some of the opposition fellows from, especially, Pas, or the Islamic Party. 

But I’ll give them this much. At any rate “they live…”

Is there a moral to this story that started off with Elliot’s pessimistic view on life? I suppose it would be to take one’s chances but to live as pragmatically as possible. “If life hands you lemons,” said W C Fields, “make whiskey sours.” 

Robert Frost said that he could sum up what he’d learnt about life in three words: it goes on.

It does that,  but in a blind and indifferent manner. So, to expect it to treat you well is as crazy as expecting a bull not to charge you because you’re vegetarian. 

Thankfully for  most of us, life is what the author Truman Capote said it would be: “a moderately good play with a badly written third act.” 

It is at the end of this third act that life lets us in on its final joke, death. It’s just  its way of letting us know we’ve been fired. 

ENDS