As humanly as possible

Out of the ashes we rise and run til we rest and take stock.

We don’t kick the can down the road. The best we could as humanly as we could, we salvage and sort what remains after the fire.

We repurpose and even make art out of ashes. In chaos there is creativity.

That’s how things should be. As it turns out, we find overproduction and overconsumption, overzealotry and overspending ethos. Welcome to Universal borrowing.

We no longer see values in things, much less broken things. With oversupply ( have you ever heard of jobbers?) we no longer focus on conservation, in restoration, of saving stuff for sourvenir or keepsakes.

Before long, we discard people as well. Voila. Disposable society. All the three-prong plugs, the analog screens, the typerwriters and woops, the vinyl.

Old ideas, old folks and old things. Passe. As if everything is just a fad, to be filtered out and changed out every season to stay in vogue. Even Elton John grows old, despite once, had been ahead of his time. When you’re inducted into the Hall of Fame, watch out. Mon Cher (ie). Madonna in Brazil.

Out of the ashes, we reinvent ourselves. Humanity 2.0. Leadership 2.0. Revival 2.0 (a redundancy).

If one doesn’t get that cycles are now shorter, one has been asleep. Wake me up when September ends.

Our multigenerational family has tried to juggle multiple variables i.e. the old watch over the young, the young tend to the old, the living commemorate the dead, the dead bless the living etc.. as should be; to stitch and to mend e.g. a leaking roof, a hole in the shirt, “a little something” for the road. We all need our security blanket and a place to put/find things (OCD to ADD).

We move forward, as humanly as possible. “Giay rach phai giu lay le” (when broke, stay calm and collected).

Broken we were. At many times and in many places. Somehow, a line in Hemmingway seems to provide needed “justification” ” light can come in through those same broken places” (I paraphase). As if ashes we were meant to be, rock bottom was to be expected. Born to be broken by one trickle-down thing or another, such as warring or warlords. As if our collective life has no shape and color, forever condemned on the first half of a V while the other half, always alludes us.

Meanwhile, pampered folks can’t seem to get enough satisfaction per bell-shaped happiness curve.

Milk-In-First we have been. Downstairs we lived. Out of the Ashes we rise.

The poor need respect. The rich need relevance (from Peace Corps to Climate Corps). Both are lonely and in need of “ lift”. We all live in a Yellow Submarine….

Out of our depth, we invented more “humanized” machine, more stuff as in “the Cat on the hot Tinroof” ( to buy more stuff in the hope that one of those things will give us eternal life).

We are self-contradicting : on the one hand we live as if there were no tomorrow (Stoic), on the other, we promise others around the bend, or beyond the grave, there will be life eternal e.g. by just buying this Oil Olay, it willd be ” the first time, I ever saw your face”. Quite amazing…grace.

We live without being aware of our own shifting shadows. Meanwhile, moss gather, from day to day. Memories fade, minute to minute.

Slowly and suddenly (again, Hemmingway), we arrive not at our desired destination (that’s why we entertain “selective memory”, to consolidate our past self) . While resting, we ponder whether we should have begun with “Why”, or should never ask “Why”.

In truth, it’s those biological and environmental elements that dictate. One tsunami away, an upcoming earthquake will settle everything (unsettling, I should say). A time to sleep and a time to wake up. In the vein of nature and history, one is excused, from engaging or non=participation.

If one doesn’t sense that sense of irony, one hasn’t been awake lately.

I notice a world full of it, if you asked me. Post-modernity, post-truth, misbelief, mistrust….

Folks at the Dictionary department have been busy e.g. “post-trust” i.e. can’t trust a Priest, can’t trust a politician, can’t trust a Communist, can’t trust a Capitalist, can’t trust a Corporate accountant, a coach (Nassir) or an in-languare free papers (propaganda) like the Epoch Times (Falun Gong) or TikTok, can’t trust Twitter, can’t trust your neighbor, (Robert Frost’s about the fence) , can’t trust the shopper (security camera) (then why didn’t they hire enough cashiers).

Voila. Living in paranoid. In mistrust and suspicion. Is this what we signed up for when rising from the ashses. Should we have stayed burned down ( At least, we know what’s underneath and how it smells).

Like in Covid times, when Indian mourners couldn’t find enough wood to burn their deaths. Burnt flesh!

May they rest in peace.

For once, I am mindful, knowing I will not get to live to see the logical conclusion to today’s unfolding drama which so far has been full of deception, twists and lies ( even Hollywood can’t handle it since it’s not in their places and outside of their budget). The arc is long and bent.

Perhaps life, human and humane life, should involve a “Third Alternative”, neither Black nor White, Rich or Poor, Upstairs and Downstairs, Milk-in-First and Last, One and Zero (non-zero sum). Again, those who remain optimistic, would always nudge others that “just a little more ahead”, “Life is wonderful”, “Rainbow after the rain” .

For instance, Kickstarter, Kitchen Central, “love your digital neighbor ” and be a virtual Good Samaritan e.g. click on Like to encourage ” the least of these” (those without the Internet connection) to evolve from competition to collaboration, sauvage society to salvage society (ironically with the help of machine our emerging Techtopia.

As humanly as possible whether you decide to kick the can down the road or repurpose it.

Biologically and socially I am from an extended family. We try our best to shield and to mend our broken places. Occasionally, light sneaks in through those places, exposing our strengths and weaknesses, like an uncalled-for SWOT analysis of our opportunity-costly life.

Nobody gets to say the final word in our little human drama. Hollywood ending tilts toward hopefulness, not horrible ending as in real life. The best we could do is to live on as humanly as possible until “death do us part”.