Swan-like

Walk like one. Die like one. Must be one.

We’re told to watch and listen with our eyes. To adjust and survive, in war and in peace. As if living were just playing for time. Breathe in and out. Never listen to oneself, the complex person inside, completely unknown nor fully known. (I was just skimming through the Columbia History of the Vietnam War, in one chapter, I found scholars disagree on the origin of the Vietnamese Confucianism, anti-Colonialism, Nationalism and Communism. Mostly, village folks got displaced, strangers in town and in their own country/society. Now, that’s a complete unknown).

What if we’re not sitting ducks? Herded in stampede? There might be a gem. A treasure. Better angels to be set free.

A friend said as I ran uphill, I did better (it’s like I had to activate my internal transmission to L1).

Now, what if the entire population asked themselves: who am I, really!

What if we’re neither ducks nor aliens, floating and flowing through life (a bill here, an expense there – pre-paid, post-paid, fees and interests, end-of-life insurance, travel insurance, parking insurance – as of this edit, there is an active shooter on the campus of FL State).

Before the Wright brothers, we thought mobility meant walking using “walker” or being on wheels, two or four. Then the plane lifted off. Voila. New Century. New possibilities.

We have barely exploited the fruits of the Industrial Age, then in an unthought out hurry, gave away the secret sauce (Genie out of the bottle). The same with “viable alternative” of the Information Age. Move fast, break things.

What if we’re never a duck. We’re told to observe and listen. To obey and vote. To pay taxes and keep our heads down. Be good then be dead. Live and die duck-like. Lamb to the slaughter. Never in passing be aware the possibility that we’re swan. Given a chance, our other selves might and will show. On that uphill climb, perhaps we can push our “transmission” a bit more.

In crisis and in want. How we act and react. In concentration camps or on campus (both dangerous). At work or at home (both violent).

Compromising or principled? Stoop low or stand tall. Raise a finger or wave goodbye. Would you rather grow up and become Santos-like or Santa-like? Most time, it’s something in between. Complex and inexhaustibly unknown to ourselves. The spectrum of self-loathing and self-acceptance, much like those Vietnamese villagers with forced urbanization or relocated into strategic hamlets – VCs by night, Paris by day.

Duck 2.0. (in speed, degree and quantity) might seem like progress (from Pentium chips to Quantum chips) but it’s not Swann 1.0 (different in kind).

Our huge blind spot: we’re always predisposed to look outward, to compare and contrast, to measure up, to climb to the next level on the totem (provincial) pole. All the while, our swan-like nature remains undiscovered and unknown. The saddest thing in life is not just wasted talent or potential (Albert Schweitzer) but to quack like a duck (to assure ourselves that we still are alive and can blend in for harmony sakes, forgetting to flap our wings. Much like the Wright brothers threw in the towel and settled with two-wheels Harley.

Wait not for that ladle of soup and bread crumb. Read “Night”. Read “Unbroken”. Or diary of a sitting duck (just joking) under bombardment and barrage (WWII), there exists ample evidence of man being human to man.

In the foxhole, one quickly finds what he/she is on Earth for, not to be studio audience to the others (on social media). From the Why we go on to the Who – we really are i.e. born a swan, die a swan.