Everything is built on sand, but we must live as if it were built in stone

“Nothing is built on stone; All is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.”

― Jorge Luis Borges

This appears a fundamental truth that resonates with everyone who reads it, yet our daily behaviors and mindsets revolve around stones—the momentary conviction that what we have, used to have, or will have is solid, stable, permanent, the solution to all our self-inflicted psychological suffering.

And it is not. It likely never will be. Everything is sand: elusive, thin, moving through space and dissolving with a weak blow of air.

Yet our entire civilization is built as if sand were stone. This is practically necessary as a heuristic to exist within some sense of stability and harmony. Yet you can't forget the underlying sand-based nature of everything you and others build—whether it be concrete constructions or thought-based, abstract ones.

For some, it can be liberating. For others, less so. It is true nonetheless, and we have continued living for many centuries, and you are not special compared to those who came before you.

You can continue building systems and structures while staying psychologically detached from their permanence—plan and execute as if they're stable, but don't cling when they inevitably shift or dissolve.