Pop Culture Tao - Dust in the Wind

Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind

Now don't hang on
Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky
It slips away
And all your money won't another minute buy
~ from "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas ~

This song utilizes two Tao-like metaphors: dust and water.

For me, the line "All we are is dust in the wind" highlights that all things originate and return to the most basic element - dust. No matter how mighty or lowly an object or person is in their prime, our forms or bodies all end up as grains of dust.

I realize that, for some people, this may sound like melancholy. Many people want to believe that what they do, say and build in this lifetime will stand the test of time. But I find great solace in the notion that, when my days on earth are through, the particles of what I once called me will merge with the particles of past civilizations and nature. As dust, we become one.

The other metaphor -- Just a drop of water in an endless sea -- represents flow. My life, while special to me, merely is a drop in the ocean of Tao. Again, I find great solace in the idea that my humble existence is part of the great flow of a mysterious river that wends its way to an endless sea.

To see what other aspects of "pop culture" I've written about, go here.