The Intangible

It’s everywhere.

Yet we are behavior-modified to put weight on the scale, to measure and quantify in nano second urgency.

McKinsey and Morgan, Central Bank and the FED. The interest rates and rewards (FICO) of lower loan rates.

On this 80th D-Day commemoration, we salute the courage (manifested quality) of those who jumped out of airplanes or waded in knees-deep waters carrying 70 lbs. of gear (there’s your penchant to count) with near zero chance of survival.

That one was for keeps. Honoring. Saluting.

The intangible around us: ordinary heroes, love in action (soup kitchen), act of kindness, words of encouragement and enablement.

It’s summer. Kids are out of school. Time drags on, at the beach or by the pool. Many are wondering what the future may hold. Love, beauty, truth and eternality no longer occupy the day. The brain bandwidth is reserved for student loan, credit card debt, mortgage and car payments.

We’re plagued with social media feed which left us with little time for what’s behind and beyond us. Only the measurable at hand (agree to amount?) and the visible up front (traffic signs). How heavy, how much, how loud and how long?

Not long.

Soon enough.

You’ll see. Are we there yet? Mirage after mirage, then forgetfulness and dementia. Meanwhile, the bodies laid waste, many bled to death. Still “future-forwarding” disclaimer.

In Storm of Steel, readers come across situations like even the dead (buried in cemetery) got killed twice. Or on one occasion, Junger, the author, went for a chat at his neighboring trench only upon return to find his own bunker bombed to oblivion.

How long? Not long. The invisible and intangible are always with us.

We just can’t see and still don’t care. Just what others e.g. Meta’s engineers and Amazon algorithms “recommend “as urgent (only one left). Sensational SEO and highest Page-ranked brought to you by Alphabet e.g. the cover-up decades ago in England…

Until and unless the prison bars slammed shut (audibly) and handcuffs removed that the mob are satisfied…for now until its next bloodthirsty bout. “Go home everybody” “hug your inter-racial wives”. The problem with our modern society is news cycle, that which used to be at 6PM, now is anytime, 24/7, so urgent and sensational, so tribal and trivial, with production music and large fonts “Breaking News”.

We are what we pay attention to. Always. Those who measure, will never cease to count costs vs benefits. Those who by nature givers will always give – without any mental reservation or remorse, who will never treat each encounter as a transaction (this happened often through a bullet-proof window at pawnshops for a quick cash-and-carry.)

Can’t live on while discounting all the beauties in the world e.g. le soleil (the warmth of each morning’s Sun), le vent (free wind to soothe the heat wave) and la plage (wave after wave of salty sea to soothe a restless summer) which happen to be all free. As in “the wedding” (poem from Doctor Zhivago) the morning after:

“in the endlessness of sky, in a whirl of feathers, flocks of pigeons fly on high, from their night long shelter. As if someone had sent them, to the new young couple, to catch up and give them their wishes to be happy. Life is also such a flash, such an effervescence, of a soul in human mass, Offered as a present” pg. 28 Selected writings and letters by Boris Pasternak.

From parent of parent on down, we were told what’s important and urgent: hands that manipulate the lever, drop the bombs, carry out an execution without stay, spray and release chemicals into the stream. My life and yours are definitely affected and afflicted by strayed bullets that took down Heads of State (WWI, 1963 etc..) or near-missed (Ford’s twice in SF).

No longer do we “have a dream” (for fear “history might repeat itself”). It’s not safe anywhere, like a line uttered by Robert Redford in “3 Days of the Condor”: “I just read books” (yet he was about to make a run for his life, turning his 10-minutes office lunch run into a three-days fugitive- with Faye Dunaway reluctant compliance while assassin was played by Max von Sydow.

Oil price went up, interest rates go down, missiles launched, and flights took off (Seattle to Istanbul, with emergency stop in JFK due to sudden death of pilot). All computerized and measured in nano seconds. Precision guided Military Industrial Complex, delivered swiftly and stealthily, so brainless that even a monkey can pull the lever. Ironically, our peace time leisure is financed by current advertisers and past defense budget (tax dollars).

Born to duck, to run, this way and that way. No home or bunker to come back to. Even the dead got killed twice. Private Ryan might get saved, since his enlisted brothers were not. At this kill ratio rate, we might as well die twice, only to live on in the Cloud until those databases get scrubbed periodically. Even the dead might get solicited twice (ironically for life insurance). There was a word for it back in 1517-time frame. It’s called indulgence.

The intangible, though not visible and touchable, are all around us: love, the warm caress of the Sun and the gentle touch of the surf. Thank goodness for our multi-facet existence. If everything is visible and urgent, to be held tangibly in the palm of one’s hand (Jobs incarnated would roll over to see how his I phone has evolved for the worst i.e. no more time for calligraphy, for a walk in neighborhood apple or prune orchard) life would be short- changed albeit convenient: fast food nation, fast lane highway, and fast-pace existence. Quickly, “just ahead, a few more miles”. Auto-complete text…then press “send” before the light turns green.

Where is my bunker? My sanctuary? My last stop on this journey of mixed blessing and curse, both measurable and intangible. It’s quality that counts. As David Brooks said about D-Day dads” when history called, they came”.