OUR LIFE IS NEVER OVER

That wise observer of the human condition, the late Yogi Berra, once opined “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” If that wasn’t a wise-enough observation, he also let us know that “It (the opera) ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” I was reminded of Yogi’s observations while reading Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo would have agreed with Yogi. Let me explain.

I was amazed to learn that Leonardo had only completed about 15 paintings throughout his life. For the most part he never believed that any painting was ever complete. There was always something that could be improved. He even carried his famous Mona Lisa with him till the day he died, obviously believing that he might still be able to improve on that magnificent work of art.

All of which brings me back to Yogi. No matter what fork in the road we take, the rest of our life will be affected by what happens to us once we head down that fork. Moreover, everyone we encounter down that road and beyond will be affected by their encounters with us as we will be affected by our encounters with them. We are all changed by what happens down that fork in the road and changed forever.

And as for the opera being over after the aria is sung, fat lady notwithstanding, it really isn’t over. We carry that experience with us the rest of our lives. And that experience affects what we do for the rest of our lives whether we are aware of that truth or not. In fact, our lives are changed every moment of every day by what happens to us in each moment, again, whether we are aware of that truth or not.

In many ways we are like Leonardo’s unfinished pieces. Something is added to our life each moment of each day. We are an unfished masterpiece, if you will, until the day we die. But it is more than that. Even in death our life is not over, and I am not talking about life in eternity. I am talking about life in the here-and-now. We may no longer be physically present, but we are present.

Leonardo still lives on his paintings and in those who are moved by them. We still live on in the people we have encountered down those forks in the road whether they realize it or not just as we often don’t realize how we have been affected by the operas we have heard, the books we have read, the people we have met.

If you are like me, we hardly ever give a second thought about how such a mundane fork in the road will be important in our lives and in the lives of others, that who and what we encounter down that road will keep us alive long after we have been dead. Somehow I think that in the back of Leonardo’s mind was the realization that he would live on in the lives of those who viewed his works and he wanted to make sure that his work was the best it could. It was never finished. His life would never be over and neither will ours.