Let's go. We can't. Why not? We are waiting for Godot.
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I have been thinking about this exchange in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot a lot lately.
ESTRAGON: Let’s go.
VLADIMIR: We can’t.
ESTRAGON: Why not?
VLADIMIR: We are waiting for Godot.
.
End of Act I. They do not move
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This exchange recurs throughout the play. No progress is made. Nothing is changed. Both acts end on the same verbal promise for action that is never carried out:
VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go?
ESTRAGON: Yes, let’s go.
They do not move.
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It depressed the hack out of me when the lights dimmed on the two figures in the center of the stage: the same way they started; the same way they ended Act II. Immobile. Engulfed by the darkness, the unknown, eternity. The image and the thought haunts me.
They do not move.
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A lot have been written, theorizing the allegorical meaning of Beckett’s tragicomedy. The meaning of Godot.
To me, I’ve always thought that Beckett made a mistake; he should have turned the label the other way around – a comictragedy. This is a tragedy about Didi and Gogo who are the prisoners of their own misplaced hope. This whole waiting thing causes the inaction. It would have been better if they have come to the conclusion that no one is coming. Things are not going to be better. Nothing is going to change their situations for them. But themselves.
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I didn’t even realize I have been waiting. Waiting for something, for what I have no idea yet.
What are you waiting for? If you knew what you are waiting for, perchance an event, a sign, the other shoe, will it make everything more tolerable?
I compartmentalize. By spouting random nonsense here I am able to continue to not think. To forestall the unraveling. To keep it together. To carry on with no resolution in sight. To wait. Not remembering that I have been waiting.
For what I know not yet.
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Let’s go.
We can’t.
Why not?
We are waiting for Godot.
was this posted before or after we spoke??
if before…wow
.-= magda´s last blog…Wanting =-.
Way before we spoke. 🙂 I know. Isn’t that something? {{{hugs}}}
Ah, the Irish – they’re just full of belly laughs, aren’t they?
.-= Diane Laney Fitzpatrick´s last blog…Every Wedding Needs an Aunt =-.
Yes they are!!! 🙂
I’ll wait with you.
.-= Mary Lee´s last blog…Down By the Riverside =-.
You’ll be Didi the wise one, and I’ll be Gogo. 🙂
I was a waiter – well, not in the food sense, but I did my fair share of waiting. For the right person. For the right job. But it wasn’t until I stopped waiting and actually started doing that my life started to finally come together. I ended a marriage that I was hoping would get better. I ended the waiting and went in pursuit of a career instead, and I’m at a happier place job-wise. When my current partner broke up with me once before and instead of waiting around for him to come back, I went on relentless pursuit of the life I’ve always dreamed of – travel/impromptu get-togethers/weekly exploration of the city – and just by doing that, things fell back into place for us, and we got back together but starting from a different point, heading to a happier direction.
Now, we have a one-year goal to get out of this city in search of a simpler life because I want to be able to stay home with my toddler, not wanting to miss these crucial years. But I’ve been tempted to wait and see…Yet I know that unless I move myself to action, nothing will come out of this. I will still be lamenting my hours away from her a year from now. It’s difficult to have the discipline to achieve a goal. But when I look at the goal, who stares back at me innocently, I know what I should do. And I will.
.-= Justine´s last blog…New toy! It doesn’t vibrate, but I still love it. =-.
What you have so bravely done is what I am trying to muster enough courage to do.
By the way, there is a play called Dumb Waiter that I also love. 😉 LOL
time waits for no one. and it’s all in the experiencing and not the looking or waiting for meaning. it’s moments. transient moments without any one end.
wo! way too deep. *stabs brain for thinking too hard*
i’m with shawn, i’m waiting for blogher. even though i don’t have a ticket yet, so i guess i’m just as absurd as vladimir and estragon.
.-= pattypunker´s last blog…10 important factoids about me =-.
The wait is OVER! 🙂
Well of course we’re waiting for someone to do something about the oil pond that used to be known as the Gulf of Mexico. And we wait, and we wait, and we wait.
.-= Vintage Christine´s last blog…OMG! We Hit The Big One-Oh-Oh! =-.
Chris, I am so sorry for what’s still going on AND not going on but should have been in LA! Heard on NPR they are srly thinking of burning the marsh as the last result. Ugh
I’m always waiting…waiting for a raise…waiting for lottery results…waiting for the bathroom.
Waiting keeps so me busy that sometimes I even forget to worry (-:
Hey you. 🙂
What are you waiting for, dear? What are any of us waiting for?
I’ve read some research on happiness that’s interesting, and I was reminded of it while reading your post. Because so many of us are waiting, and we think when whatever it is finally comes or happens to us, THEN we’ll be so much happier. For me, for example, I think when summer finally arrives, I’ll be so much happier . . . . But, research seems to indicate that we have a baseline level of happiness. So when that “thing” — whatever you’re waiting for — finally happens, you are happier for a very short period of time, but then you return to your baseline. So you win the lottery? You’re happier for a few months, and then you return to your baseline, wherever you are now.
But research also indicates that only 50% of our total level of happiness is that baseline state. Another 10% is life circumstances (like winning the lottery — or losing someone close to you). An amazing 40% of our own happiness is within our own control. PBS did a series on this, and I’ve used it in my classroom with positive results. Here’s the website for more info, if you’d like to check it out: http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/happiness. The series is available on iTunes for just a few dollars, I think.
Dearest Andrea, thank you! I need to watch that series. I don’t know. This is probably yet another pendulum swing to the bottom of the curve for me. I need to claw my way out of this depression. Did you watch the YouTube vid about what makes us happy at work? It’s not money, but rather a sense of recognition and accomplishments. I think that’s part of the reason I am in this funk. Xxoo
Obviously you are waiting for BlogHer. Now, are there any other important life questions I can assist you with, dear?
.-= Wicked Shawn´s last blog…When I Finally Get Excited About Class =-.
Yes. How may I be wickedly sexy like you? And yet so adorable at the same time?!
Maybe…if you have clearly labelled, in your mind, what exactly you are waiting for, then it’s much easier to remain stuck indefinitely. Because very specific things, preconceived things — well, it’s much more likely that they won’t show up. Statistically. Right?
But if you allow yourself to be in a bit of stasis, and maybe you have no idea why or what isn’t quite right or quite there, but you know it’s _something_ — but you don’t know what, exactly. Well, that makes it possible for it to be anything — anything at all. Everything. Nothing. And so one day you can point at it — at this small thing, at some insignificant dust mote, at whatever — and say “Yes, here it is. This is it. I’m ready now.” And then…you go.
Yes? Maybe? Sometimes? Perhaps?
(I’m going to stop talking now.)
.-= Miss B´s last blog…Some Kinda Mastiff =-.
Never ever stop talking, to me I mean. (If sexy hot lips are on yours, YES do stop talking… 😉 )
Oh great, I had to read this now? I’m in a bit of a “funk” this very moment. I’m always waiting for something…
That seventy-two million dollars to drop out the sky.
The pizza delivery guy.
My husband to pick up his socks off of the floor.
.-= Brilliant Sulk´s last blog…Basket Case =-.
Waiting for lottery would be more realistic, I hate to tell ye this…