Taking a break from my regular story blogs to put those energies to finishing another novella. Just Jot It January is a great tool for this, choosing to keep it more journal-worthy. This one, for January 5th, I can share online. Check out the larger collection of fellow playmates here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/05/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-5th-2024/
The Ultimate, meaning the top of the top, and probably the final of a long journey, hopefully one which shifts to another, more healthy plane of existence, maybe something we could even call “Living.” Or as friend Barb’s son said to her, “The goal of life is to experience low levels of ecstasy most of the time.”
Does this mean that if we reach the ultimate in mature positivity and growth, we stop? Or is there a continual press to move to a higher-frequency stage of being?
Similarly, if we reach a nadir of existence, do we drop further to a less evolved and more spiritually uninspired stage? Is this what reincarnation is all about? And if I’m at a lesser stage, do I even have the brain cells (or spiritual cohones?) to strive for something more? Is it all predetermined? Not going down that Calvinistic road, I’m afraid.
This implies to me that the ultimate is also, always, the penultimate, the next-to-highest stage in all of us, “us” meaning all living beings. Our movement is ever upwards, to the point where we feel an undefined longing for being closer to a moving and undefined target. Is this what mindfulness is getting at?
This all also implies that we/us are all on the same plane of equality (even as the plane tilts and we slide and tumble back and forth), and that all life is equally profane and sacred (whether we recognize “us” as such).
Is there, in fact, an endpoint for any of us? This must be recycling in its purest and most true form.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2024)
(The original SOC has been heavily edited, because I didn’t quite know the true definition of “penultimate.” So I guess this experience is a case in point. Good grief and Lol!)
Valley of the Trolls 
Liz – you’re not the only one who had a problem with the definition of penultimate! See my related post: https://mariezhuikov.wordpress.com/2023/04/17/a-penultimate-mistake/
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Recycling. I’m going green …. as in burial. I look at is as just continuing the breaking-down process that has already begun! 😂
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Alas, we need an addendum for the last is the ultimate. Penultimate is the one before the last! Sorry. More work!!!
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Lol, I *did* get the definition wrong!😂
But I think the stream of consciousness that came out of it pretty much addresses the point anyhow, despite my error. I’m satisfied with where my mind went with this one. 😆🐧
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Me, too. I enjoyed your piece, I just had to nitpick because the word “penultimate” has a special significance to me. A year or more ago, Forgottenman said he’d been asked by someone what his favorite word was and before he told me what it was he wanted to know mine. I said, “Penultimate.” He said, amazed, that that was the answer he’d given to his friend as well. Then, months later, my friend Blue asked me what my favorite word was. I said, “Penultimate,” and she said, amazed, that that was what she had said as well. An incredible coincidence given the number of words there are in the English language.
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I like the mouthfeel of “penultimate”, but will never misuse that word again.
I edited heavily and lost the SOC, for correctness’ sake. But the point was made in the exercise of striving for that higher goal…
I’m laughing at myself, but enjoying the tip and tumble. ;-)
Thanks!
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And tacky of me to point out the error as well, I admit. I am a reformed English teacher and sometimes slip back into old habits.
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Actually, thank you. The process was pretty much a case in point…😂😂
It made the whole thing better!
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