Out of the Ashes. We crawl, rise and run toward daylight, toward the Sun, toward the point where we lay down and take stock.
As humanly as possible. We don’t kick the can down the road.
We salvaged what remains after the fire.
If possible and as humanly as possible, we recycle and repurpose it (even make art out of it).
That’s how things should be. As it turns out, we find overproduction and overconsumption, overzealous and overspent ethos.
We no longer see values in things, much less broken things or people. With oversupply we no longer see the value of restoration, of stuff-turn-sourvenir or for personal keepsakes.
Before long, we discard people as well. Voila.
Old ideas, old folks and old things. Long dead. As if everything is just a fad, to be changed out every season. Even Elton John grows old, despite once, was ahead of his time. When you’re inducted into the Hall of Fame, watch out. Mon Cher (ie).
Out of the ashes, we reinvent ourselves. Humanity 2.0. Leadership 2.0. Revival 2.0 (a redundancy).
If one doesn’t get this sense of irony, one has been asleep. Wake me up when September comes.
Our multigenerational family has tried to mix and match the variables i.e. the old watch over the young, the young tend to the old etc.. as should be; to stitch and to mend e.g. a leaking roof, a hole in the shirt. We all need our security blanket and a place to put/find things (OCD).
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 provides “justification” for that ” light can come in through those same broken places” (I paraphase). As if ashes we were supposed to be, rock bottom to be expected. Born to be broken. And life resembles a V shape without the other half of the V.
As if unbroken folks can’t get enough light , as if their pampered existence is somehow a liability.
Milk-In-First we have been. Downstairs we lived. Out of the Ashes we rise.
The poor need respect. The rich need relevance. Both are lonely and need “ lift”.
Hence, we invented more “humanized” machine, more stuff as in “the Cat on the hot Tinroof” (buy more stuff in the hope that one of those things will give them 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 they will live forever (or be raised on the Last Day or just buy this Oil Olay to be forever young).
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, but because we needed rest . While resting, we ponder whether we should begin with “Why”, or should we 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.
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, going postal….
Folks at the Dictionary department have been busy since there was not a vocabulary for our time 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 coach (Nassir) can’t trust 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 confusion. Is this what we asked for when rising from the ashses. Should we have stayed down ( At least, we know what’s underneath and how t smells).
Like in Covid times, when Indian mourners couldn’t find enough wood to burn their deaths.
May they rest in peace.
For once, I am mindful, knowing that I will not get to live to see the end of things, the conclusion to a story which has so far, full of deception, plot twists and lies ( even Hollywood can’t tell since it’s not their places to pontificate).
Perhaps life, human and humane life, should include and 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).
For instance, Kickstarter, Kitchen central, acting out “love your digital neighbor as yourself”, “do to the least of these” (those without the Internet connection) etc… from competition to collaboration, half-human, half machine to a hybrid existence.
As humanly as possible, until Biology and Environment dictate and do us in. It’s that simple, whether you decided to kick the can down the road or repurpose it.
Biologically and socially I am from an extended family, where 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, which BTW has been lived out as humanly as possible, with whatever salvaged out of the ashes.