The current horrors of existence can feel like a lot. Seemingly, from what we "know" - which, we all need to be reminded, has always been a curated flow of information, with the hand that curates sometimes heavier than others - hope can easily get lost in the fog of comprehension. But when you feel that smothering hopelessness descend from your brain into the edges of your heart, I'll remind you that there is never hopelessness in the croak of a frog from a murky swamp of earth and water. The cicadas, even in the heaviest most humid and insufferable heat, always build a crescendo of ancient (and futuristic) harmonies without a filter of hopelessness. What we have just is what it is. We are neither doomed nor blessed, necessarily. We just are. And salvation from our own mistakes always lingers in the shadows that are unseen. In fact, the shadow dwellers have more freedom than most, not just a freedom from the false capital letter Freedom that is now a highly sought after and well marketed brand of boot across your throat, but also from the ups and downs of doom and hope. The contrast is not as pronounced in the shadows, not nearly as exaggerated by the filters of algorithm and bias and mental unwellness that is foundational for the system of consumer exploitation we are living in.
So as the summer breeze blows in this week, seemingly hotter than ever (at least where I lay my head), with records being broken as far back as records have been kept, keep in mind that you are surviving it still, one day at a time. That does not mean it will get easier. But that also does not mean it will perpetually get harder. Whatever it is about the human mind that craves an unsustainable bar chart climbing or descending towards an impossible hope or doom, that is nowhere to be replicated in nature. Balance is always maintained by the Universe. And though humanity may put itself at risk, I take solace in the memory of Neanderthals, who co-existed and had relations with Homo sapiens for thousands of years. And there is absolutely no reason why we can't be some of the stubbornly existential humans who dwell happily in the shadows, for longer than humanly possible, according to all the bar charts ever drawn.
So as the summer breeze blows in this week, seemingly hotter than ever (at least where I lay my head), with records being broken as far back as records have been kept, keep in mind that you are surviving it still, one day at a time. That does not mean it will get easier. But that also does not mean it will perpetually get harder. Whatever it is about the human mind that craves an unsustainable bar chart climbing or descending towards an impossible hope or doom, that is nowhere to be replicated in nature. Balance is always maintained by the Universe. And though humanity may put itself at risk, I take solace in the memory of Neanderthals, who co-existed and had relations with Homo sapiens for thousands of years. And there is absolutely no reason why we can't be some of the stubbornly existential humans who dwell happily in the shadows, for longer than humanly possible, according to all the bar charts ever drawn.
