C’est la vie

‘C’est la vie, that’s life’ you may say. The loose phrase echoes the sentiment of an unaffected or undistracted person, too focused to be greatly hindered or even surprised by life. The death, the life, the triumph and the dismayed all are disregarded under the simple C’est la vie. But who, in all sincerity and meaning can actually say something of such flippancy when real, shaking, and arduous times avail our lives? To speak in such a way is either a symbol of insanity, lack of feeling, maybe even security and surety.
Insanity: It is conceivable that one is so locked in his own closet of despair that life is too tumultuous for him to come out and play in. The insane man is then able to throw around any phrase he likes, for nothing is of any real substance. He speaks and has as much flooding affects as one drop of water; his words stem from an inability to understand life aright any longer. His ability to see and compute the socially accepted—or humanly appropriated; the natural and normal—response. Therefore, at any moment he can say, ‘C’est la vie’ and mean it, but it means nothing.
Lack of feeling: There are those who feel nothing. We do not mean physical touch but rather emotional ‘touch.’ His mother who was nothing but kind to him unexpectedly dies and he is unaffected. His wife finds that she has finally been able to stiff-arm the long awaited pregnancy and no joy falls over him; thus at any moment he can say, ‘C’est la vie’ and mean it, but it means nothing.
Security: The world could implode and standing on its edges this man can rightly explain our phrase because he has an overwhelming confidence in something. Yes, he feels and yes he understands but still, overriding all things he feels secure. Now there are two possibilities in such security: something you perceive to be trustworthy or something that unequivocally is trustworthy. Many have trusted in their minds, their abilities, their race, their beliefs, their hopes, humanity, karma, good deeds, or fate. Others have searched for something outside themselves, for they know that there is something bigger, more grand than they can find inwardly or in their humanity. They understand that when they the towering mountains sprinkled with snow on its tips all hovering beneath a blanket of serine clouds majesty and awe is the natural reaction because they are in the presence of something greater than they. But these too fall short. Jesus Christ is the only thing that by his nature commands awe but also offers to be followed and to become like him. Sure, Nature seems to call and be natural but we cannot be Nature; we can be captivated by the Grand Canyon but we cannot become like it. Jesus shocked the universe by leaving heaven and becoming a human only so he could live perfectly and be betrayed by his closest friends and followers and killed for being innocent. He left glory to be rejected out of love for his father. And his father raised him from the dead and has given him authority over all the universe and time and that which lies beyond time: timeless eternity. Jesus’ heavenly father asked him to do this great chore so that the rest of humanity could become like him: without blame before the father.

Whimsical words will fall away when our time on earth is done. Our eyes will close one final time and will you have the confidence to say to yourself, ‘ah, C’est la vie?’