SHORT STORY:
WINTER 2023: PURPOSE:
Early an autumn morning, before the clocks changed, he stood looking out.
“This world is fashioned for and by defeat” he muttered.
The news, the silence, the city’s noise machine; he felt nothing as definite as horror.
She walked in and without turning he said:
“I am surprised, I have been and still am too deep in my own misfortune and too sure of my own rights, to understand…”
It is not a conversation; it is a series of statements that they throw at each other.
She believes that, we are living in a shift, moving into a new epoch. He is worried that this new epoch is not anthropocentric. He always felt his life to be boring… nothing heroic was going on, like in his history books.
“In my lifetime I experienced two nuclear disasters one of which of epic proportions; televised. I saw war; televised. The wars that were close enough to become a reality and the ones that were and are too far but we are still acknowledging that parallel reality.
I saw …”
“What do you want for breakfast?”
“What is the anthropocentric value, of my existence? What is my purpose?
She is not responding. She balances her reality by responsibility and beauty. Tangible and impalpable like soil and perfume. She learned to fail and fall and now she is scared. The mantra is simple: “whatever you do, do it with joy”. Apparently it is in the Bible. She was trying to get away and start a mundane, routine ridden day.
“Activity and increased economic activity do not equal prosperity. If that was the case, then everything including war is a sign of prosperity.”
“Ok.”
“If you are being less bad, that does not mean that you are good!”
“Just about every process has side effects but they can be deliberate and sustaining instead of intended and pernicious. I read that in “Cradle to Cradle” last night.”
In her headspace she played this on repeat; Prefer delight, Prefer celebration, Prefer fun, Prefer respect. And always Signal your Intention! In every decision remember you have to exert intergenerational responsibility!
And here we are, he said;
“What is the balance between resignation and hope?”
“Hypocrisy.”
“Keep a single standard.”
e.c.vazaka
‘Keep a Single Standard’
(2023)