Great Expectations

Maybe Shakespeare was right..."Expectation is the root of all heartache..."

Well, no one can actually confirm it was Shakespeare who said that. But most people give credit to the Bard.

Buddha agrees:

He believes that expectation is essentially evil, that attachment to high expectations leads us down a path of lows when expectations are not met.

"It is not the outcome that stole your peace - it is your decision to have expectations and emotional attachments to a specific outcome that stole your inner peace..."

Buddha didn't say that directly. Some chick on some Buddhist website said that.

I suppose most of us could be considered Buddhist failures.

I am guilty, as well. I might as well be the biggest Buddhist failure there is. It's a gift really. An uncanny knack for misreading most situations.

Well, let's ask the question then:

Is it possible to hold expectations at bay? 

Maybe.

But would that be any fun? What would happen to the daydreams and the hidden smiles? The hard work and the reached goals? The challenges met and the obstacles conquered?

Let's pick at it from another point of view. As an actor, we are always thinking, always wondering, always looking for an answer, always fighting for the outcome. We, as characters, hope and want things to turn out certain ways. Maybe we need expectations to drive us ahead, painful as they might be at times. These same painful expectations can also be unspeakably beautiful.

Most characters (at least the interesting ones), by Buddha's standards, are dismal Buddhist failure rejects. They are probably the worst of the worst. They have wild expectations and attachments to outcomes. Love, sex, death, drugs, future....the great plays are laced with expectation.

And so is real life.

Life is laced with expectation. And while Buddha and Shakespeare might be right, what are we to do about it?

Really.

How hard it is to separate what we'd like to happen, hope might happen, and think might happen from our minds and souls.

If we never expected anything, would we simply be pleasantly surprised when things DID go our way?

Would there be disappointment? Would we feel joy without the dreaded but wonderful 'expectation?'


Shakespeare wrote play after play full of shattered expectations. Life is drama.

The truth is, it is human to expect. It is human to attach ourselves to people and to desired outcomes.

We may not always get what we want.

But how sweet it is when we do.