"Now a' [all] is done that men can do, and a' [all] is done in vain."  From a song by Scottish poet Robert Burns, these words express his feelings about the eighteenth century of Battle of Culloden, which took place in the Scottish Highlands in 1746.  It was a battle fought for Scottish independence.  Though it began well for the Highlanders, it ended in tragedy as the British troops overpowered the outmatched Scots and massacred thousands of men on the battlefield.  It is the source of much Scottish resentment toward England even to this day.

    Burns's words capture the scene well.  Valiant though the Scottish drive for independence was (if you saw the movie "Braveheart," you got another window into the Scottish drive for independence), in the aftermath of this ugly battle, it seemed as if all had been for nought.  Broadly speaking, it had been done in vain: nothing really changed.

    The author of Ecclesiastes makes similar observations in his assessment of human existence.  "All is futility," he writes, "all is futility."  However bleak we may find his perspective, if we look at life through our time on this planet and that time only, we cannot help but agree.  Although we may have done "all we can do," in the end, we pass on, never to return.

    Depressing?  Yes.  Reality?  Yes, too.  To a point.  But it shows us that it's insuperably difficult to live with a reality of our own making.