brevity

Are we grasping at smoke?

Smoke assumes the shape 
Of something haunting, 
A dead rose,
Here and gone.

gasp

The pipe rests 
Between the lips
Of a man
Who is intimately acquainted with loss.

sob

A drag in
And, poof, a breath out.
A crippling rhythm
That began with a wilting rose. 

silence

Nothing is left
Except the brief wisp
Of pipe smoke
And a broken man. 

The book of Ecclesiastes opens with the line “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Haunting. Intriguing. A deeper dive into this book that is often classified as wisdom literature reveals a somewhat depressing outlook on life, but an important one.

Life is short and we often spend our time chasing after “vanity.” In Hebrew the word is “hevel” which can also be translated as “smoke” or “vapor.” This word is repeated throughout Ecclesiastes and it conveys the idea that we are chasing after something that may seem substantial, but when we try to grasp it we realize it’s just smoke slipping through our fingers.

So, what are we to do? The book closes by instructing the reader to “Fear God and keep his commandments.”

Why does this matter? Are we living our lives seeking out things that won’t prove to be lasting? Is it all vanity? Smoke? Vapor? It doesn’t have to be. Living intentionally is important. It’s easy to get caught up in the flurry of things that seem shiny or exciting. We are constantly surrounded by things that contribute to a life that isn’t really lived.

In a culture where instant gratification is the norm it requires intentionality to live at an unhurried pace. It’s far more difficult to take the unconventional path of slow living when everyone around is screaming “GO.”

Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash

A few years ago I would have shriveled at the idea of simply sitting. The idea of finding somewhere to sit down and look at a grove of trees, or a lake with a fountain in it, or the sunset. This was a foreign concept to me until more recently and now it is one of the things I find deep contentment in. It takes getting used to and it’s not always ideal to go against the grain, but it’s worth it.

The poem at the beginning of this post was something that I wrote over the summer to express the idea of how brief life is and how when we aren’t living intentionally things begin to lose meaning. I don’t think there is anything exceptionally profound in this observation, but it is a helpful reminder from time to time.

Life is short, don’t spend it chasing after smoke.