ENDISM.

I am not particularly well read, political or at all religious.

Salman Rushdie was, to me, nothing more than that chap that caused bother writing ‘The Satanic Verses’.

Or something.

But one thing that I did read from him, was about ‘Endism’.

Endism

I don’t know whether Salman Rushdie invented the concept or picked it up from elsewhere and simply quoted it. But I do remember, very clearly, the sentiment of his narrative. Even though it was over 20 years ago that I first read it.

In fact, I clipped the original quote (which I have now lost) from a newspaper and pinned it next to whatever desk I sat at, for over 10 years. The newspaper cutting turned coffee brown because I had it for so long.

Anyhow, Salman commented that we all worry far too much about things ending and beginning. He suggested that, in fact, we are almost always in the middle of things, not at the beginning or the end at all.

He wanted us to think less about things starting or ending because (this is what I read into it, anyway) these are the stress points. The parts that cause most worry and concern.

Getting on the bike for the first time and wobbling. Tricky.

Stopping and getting off the bike at the bottom of the hill as the wall or the edge of the cliff is approaching. Tricky.

The bit where you are coasting down the hill – that’s cool!

The Middle

There is something in this.

Let’s simply define Endism as overly focusing on when things start or end. Forgetting that we are in fact simply in the middle of hundreds and hundreds of things.

So let’s enjoy them. All those lovely other things that are happening right now.

There. I feel better already.