Exploring the Half-Known Life and Finding Paradise

In the age of social media, we have blurred the lines of reality and expectations. Creating idyllic lives for ourselves online, and seeing others live their curated lives as well, leaving no room for the mundane, the ugly parts of life. The parts that make an existence meaningful.

Instead, our feeds are littered with perfection, people who appear to be living in paradise all the time.

In his book, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, author Pico Iyer takes us on a journey in search of paradise. A paradise that seems elusive at best, different for all, and a potential place of death and destruction at worst. He explores the world, and different ideas of paradise, meets people from various cultures and beautifully narrates his journey for us to experience alongside him.

In a world so focused on certainty, and placing value only on that which is known, Pico suggests that it is the things we don’t know, the behind-the-scenes, those things that require faith in the uncertain that make for a complete life.

Love is not something we can draw up in a mathematical equation, the mundane moments of rotuine that make up the majority of our lives don’t fill our Instagram feeds.

We all long for certainty. We try to create certainty in our own lives, but it’s an embracing of the uncertainty that fills our cups up the fullest.

In a world that portrays perfection every step of the way, we get lured into the trap of seeking to become perfect ourselves. Dreaming up these ideas of our lives that we think we must lead. Dreaming up a paradise, in this life or after, that is free of suffering, pain, and struggle and is perfect in every sense of the word.

But, what if that isn’t paradise at all?

The truest paradise is one in which we find inner peace with ourselves and the world we belong. One that embraces the harsh truths of suffering and tragedy and sadness as normal, and necessary, parts of life. One that relieves itself of the notion that there must be perfection beyond the existence we already have.

A true paradise is the one we are living in now. One that embraces the half-known truths of life and acknowledges that some of the best things in life, require a little faith where certainty can not be guaranteed.

A true paradise is one that does not long for perfection, but embraces the imperfect world we belong to.

A true paradise is this life that we have, it’s merely a matter of choice and awareness if we see it for what it is.

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As always, thank you for reading, I hope you have a great week.

Gratefully Yours,

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