How do we reconcile
The dichotomies of our lives?
–Faith and cynicism
–Hope and despair
–Love and disgust
–Pure being and conditioned thinking…
Doomed as we are
To be vulgar in choosing…
Irrespective
Of what choices we make.
…Or should we just live in limbo?
Eternally unfulfilled…
Except in the art we create
The stories we tell
The poetry we write
And the philosophies we propose.
That which allows
For both, ecstasy and sorrow
With a steady breath…
That which upholds dignity
And yet endures disgrace
Without bemoaning the loss of face
And without the haste to change…
That which has known both-
Deep affection and bitter estrangement
And knows that both
Are light and shadow
Co-existing in love’s eternal light.
“That” is not an imposition of will
It’s not an austerity
Nor a firm resolve…
“That” is an all-encompassing
All embracing
Grace.
You’re out of sync…
In disharmony with life
When you begin
To see it as ‘yours’.
Your expectations grow
Ambition takes over
Your hopes and prayers
Get oriented towards control…
Life and its circumstances
Must favour you.
Accomplishment becomes your purpose
Love becomes an acquisition
You feel entitled to privilege
And wealth becomes the hub
Around which these revolve.
That which is abundant-
Life- forever giving
Becomes something you perversely
Try to steal for yourself.
When you fail to see the truth
You cling to law, ethics and codes of conduct.
Your education too
Gets appropriated.
It becomes subservient to mediocrity
It remains satisfied in meeting
Systemic objectives.
You graduate in degrees of ignorance
Forever in pursuit
Of the illusory.
Racing through your days
To the finish line.
But then comes a dawn
When accomplishment feels like failure
All acquisitions become soul-destroying
You’re unceremoniously stripped off
Your sense of entitlement.
The notions around which
Your life was anchored
Get swept away
By the currents of time.
Nothing lasts…
Except life.
The tragedy is not death
The tragedy is life not understood.
The pain of an ending
Is never so much
As when you know it.
And yet the sobs are silent
Muffled as they are
By the gags of normalcy.
Decency ensures
That the lines on your face
Are drawn into a smile…
That pretends to keep you social
While ensuring
That your façade reveals nothing.
You are close, yet far
In continuation
But discontinued.
Remembered
But not needed
Loved, but relegated.
‘Forever’ is no one’s destiny
It can only be our prayer
…Our hope.
And hope- we forget
-Can only convey us…
It makes no promises.
Separate we must.
All beginnings must end
All journeys must traverse a destiny.
Our days are ever-developing patterns
Of activity, of attention
Of thought, of belief
Of hope, of feeling
Of organization, of comfort
Of sustenance, of communication
Of staying connected
And of togetherness.
Humanity is the art
That emerges from
Intelligent Design.
When the minute
Inspires the hour;
And the hour
Builds the day;
And the days
Deliver the week;
And the weeks
Accomplish the month;
And the months
Grow the years;
And the years
Create a lifetime…
You realize-
It’s the little things
That matter.
The New
Is an emergence
An arrival
A change
A release
From the old and the irrelevant
Into the ancient and the eternal.
“I”
-an idea
-an image
-an impostor
-an individual
-an identity
-an idiom
-an illusion
-an imperfection
-intelligence
Life is a design
For sublimating the ‘I’
For losing it in life
So that it is not merely
Concluded by death.
Offer the ‘I’ through work
Dissolve it in devotion.
Learn to become…
But only to discover
Who you never were.
Learn to embrace
All the things that
The other ‘I’s in the world
Are ashamed of-
And run away from:
Failure
Loss
Solitude
Grief
Ordinariness.
Therein lies
The light by which
You will come to see
The darkness in which
The “I” was born.
Appearances are not the Truth
And the Truth is evident, not apparent.
Know the difference.
Courage may not always look grand
It often keeps its distance from the grandiosity of gesture.
Let it remain invisible.
Your real achievements often go unnoticed.
Awards are intended to legitimise the awarder.
Their place is on a shelf; yours, in life.
You’re educated to acquire special skills
Yet all real work happens through surrender and prayer.
Give up all ideas of yourself.
Pornography isn’t confined
To the sexual.
In fact, it has become more pervasive
Than we care to admit.
It’s apparent in the way
We intercourse with life in general.
In man’s world
Everything must be
On a perpetual high-
Growth, profit, success
Romance, attention, appearance-
All must be managed, promised and pursued.
Effect is packaged as impact.
Titillation is now a form of power.
Popularity is an achievement.
Self-gratification is the road to happiness
Seduction is success
And attention is capital.
Pornography in essence
Is a redrawing
Of gaze and glimpse.
It’s a perversion
Of desire and touch.
And a degradation and decimation
Of what makes us human.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 