Fin del Mundo

by Ray Brimble, 12/31/2016

The last few days of each year present us with an interesting mental and spiritual construct because the calendar tells us that we are living in a kind of “frontier” between the past and the future.  Frontiers are a “geography” of the edges of the worlds we know, fascinating because they hint at expansion into a region of interaction between the known, and the unknown.

While we think of frontiers as physical borders and regions, they are as much about what goes on in our heads and hearts .  The geography of this kind of frontier is defined by our ability to ingest and digest the “new”.  The border of the new is is our " Fin del Mundo". The “edge of our world”.

We all should find our own " fin del Mundo" a few times in our lives even though it can be a fascinating and terrifying experience while also illuminating and gratifying. The signpost for arrival at your own personal “Fin del Mundo is very distinct- It is when you feel that there is no way forward, and no way out.  Once you have reached this conclusion, you are at your "Fin". The Spanish word “Fin” can  be translated  not only as " the end", but also, the "edge" . This distinction allows one to traverse the terrain of the frontier because  "Fin" is not a limit, but rather  a barrier to be overcome . 

Can you peer over the edge? Are you witness to your doubts and fears at the moment of your arrival there? Will you  devise a crossing despite all evidence that it may lead to your demise? 

There is an old Native American saying which goes a long way toward explaining how tribes traversed their own frontiers, real and imagined: " Along the path in every person's life, appears a chasm that looks too wide to cross.  Leap. It's not as far as you think".

Finding your " Fin del Mundo" and surviving the "leap" is  about expanding the geography of your mind and your heart, and pushing out those edges. The controversial but far reaching Spanish king, Carlos V, who pushed the edges of humanity in the early 16th century while presiding over both the exploration of the New World and the Renaissance, had a personal moniker, Plus Ultra ("There is more.") which depicts the fuel of the soul which invites the courage to peer over  one's own "fin del Mundo" and to make the leap. There is always more. No matter what you think you know, you don’t know all of it. No matter what has been done before, it has not all been done.  There is no " end" . Only an edge. Sometimes,  a leap can get you to the other side.

In these waning days of 2016, what can we imagine might lay on the other side of another Fin- in this case, the Fin del Ano (New Year’s Eve) ?Perhaps we can take a moment to consider what we are leaping from, and to.   I leave you with a verse from T.S. Elliot’s Four Quartets:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

Happy New Year to all, and wishing you  a very good Leap!