“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose “, first written by Karr but closely associated with the Theatre of the Absurd a century later, this saying which sums up Waiting for Godot also is supposed to sum up much of life. That no matter what we do, and what we make, the few fundamentals of existence never change. There is little argument about some of them, concerned with eating, sleeping and staying on the planet, but there is hot debate around emotions and ideas of self and the whole idea that we are ‘going’ somewhere, on a journey to who knows where?
Beckett famously said that ‘birth was the death of him,’ and in as far as immutable truths go we can discern certain things that never change but we must not lose sight of the fact that within the immutable there can be some mutations, some changes made that do not alter the whole at all, but can effect difference.
Difference is important. It doesn’t make fundamental alterations to human existence but it does make our apparent imprisonment bearable. Just as non-acceptance can make us both humble and neurotic, so difference can help us understand our predicament and accept it.
At least like the tramps, we can wait until something happens.