Life Changes

Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida has it, “Untune that string, and hark what discord follows.” (James Hollis, THE BROKEN MIRROR, page 154). When folks come to therapy, it is usually because some “string” in their life has become “untuned,” perhaps through disease, aging, divorce, death, dismissal of job, etc. The issue is the task to (1) put one’s life back together, i.e., tune the string again or (2) is this “unstring” a call to a different life? It is certainly a time for discord, confusion, anxiety, fear, etc. I suspect for many the effort is the first or let’s try to deny or not accept that my life is changing. It is the refrain “I don’t like change” and, therefore, I attempt to resist change. Perhaps, we want to remain young adults even as we age, or we want to have no decrease in our financial income even though it is our retirement time. Often, this “untuning of the string in our life” is a call to accept and enter a different life. Rather than discord, we are being called to learn a new life’s tune.