The cork floor in our living room ends with an open saw edge about 80cm in front of our stove. Where tiles should now actually follow, there is a mixture of screed and old flooring. Some tiles are lying there loose next to the stove. Sometime once put there to see how the color would match the cork. Partially broken because someone stepped on them at some point.
It is a sight that at first seems alienating to a visitor. Everything there is so unfinished. And yet it would be so easy to tile that corner around the stove and finally finish it. It would be so easy to finally come to a conclusion. I know it would. The tiles are already in place. So is the tile adhesive and so is the aluminum finishing trim. We even already have a special comb trowel to properly spread the tile adhesive. We will finish the tile backsplash. We will do it when we leave this house.
For me, there are no goals. There are no end points to which I strive and at which perfection then reigns or perfection. For me, there are only cycles. That means that when a circle is completed, it begins again. That means that when perfection reigns, it is immediately in decline again. Perfection, just like any other state, is not permanent, but subject to eternal change. Much energy is wasted in attempts to hold on to supposed end points while trying to manifest them in eternal permanence. It happens out of ignorance of the true facts. Power is wasted in an attempt to work against nature. The fact that such a thing is condemned to failure in the end, with all spent strength, does not have to be emphasized. That is why this place on the stove remains unfinished for us. It reminds me daily that there are no goals to reach. It reminds me that after completion, change always comes. We complete this passage when we continue in the cycle.
I don’t have any ambitions like that. You can say I support people in achieving their ambitions.
Is that not my ambition then?
No, it is not like that. I am not doing this because I want to. I am doing it because it is so. And „being“ means „being in the cycle“. If things are then different, then I change with them.