Life as it is

Life as it is. I've lived for over forty years and I've seen life as it is: pain, misery, cruelty beyond belief. I' ve heard all the voices of God's noblest creature, moans from bungles and filth in the street.

I've been a soldier and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa, I've held them in the last moment, these were men who saw life as it is. And the died despairing. No glory, no brave last words, only their eyes filled with confusion questioning why. I do not think they were asking why they were dying but why they had ever lived.

And life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness; to surrender dreams, this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash, too much sanity may be madness! And maddest of all: to see life as it is and not as it should be!

Man of La Mancha