sorryless

A Brave New World

Sorryless74 Comments

Remember the good old days?

Neither do I, but from what Billy Joel once wrote, they weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems. It’s the kind of perspective we need now more than ever, if only to keep our boots on solid ground while the stars tease us with promises we know they’ll never be able to keep.

The Millennium just turned twenty one, which means it can get its drink on. And I know what you’re probably thinking. Do we really want to meet another calendar year that’s low on inhibitions and high on unpredictability? I mean, doesn’t Tinder provide enough of that shit as it is? But I’d like to think the new year will have a better sense of humor as a result.

54 Funny 2020 Memes To Keep You Laughing Till 2021 - Funny Gallery

For a year that was supposed to be spot on when it came to vision and hindsight, 2020 was more Carter Hayes than Isaac Hayes; as in . . more fool than cool; a delinquent tenant whose ass has finally been evicted by Father Time. But not before it unleashed a voracious predator whose genomic weaponry put humankind in its place.

Within this prosaic mosaic of a tormented tapestry, humanity coped by baking bread and singing windowsill songs with neighbors. Our everlasting will became testament to that truth Aldous Huxley once wrote about in A Brave New World when he said that pain was a fascinating horror. To our credit, we prevailed when civilization became uncivil to our senses. Sometimes in spite of ourselves, but hey, it still counts.

We learned yet again that the world is forged in laws that are graceless and thieving. It fumbles the ball on mercy because it’s too busy swimming through the dredge that delivers us from ashes to ashes and dust to dust. As temporary acquaintances, we might not like to believe that the world is just doing its job the best it can, but it’s true. The details may seem extraordinarily brutal, but that’s only because we believed in the lies of poetry and wine when they told us we could live forever.

Thing is, Huxley ain’t walking through that door. And if he was, he would damn us for ever having been happy in the first place. Because he knew that happiness possessed the fleeting quality of that leftover penny in your pocket. That it’s only here to be gone, it only lives to disappear. And beneath that deceptive surface lies the truth. We make tomorrow happen not with sugary propositions but on the salt of our steps.

So, in the now, maybe happiness is not worth striving for when peace of mind will keep us steady inside the worst of storms. And maybe we have a tougher chin than we ever dreamt possible. And maybe we stop looking for the light to guide us through this dark echo chamber of tumbling madness, because maybe . . just maybe, we possess that light our damn selves. No, check that.

I know we do.

 

74 thoughts on “A Brave New World”

  3. My friend Dale R. pointed me to your blog. And to this post today. You said it like it is, and you said it beautifully. We all need a dose of that on regular basis. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Nor should you stop searching, Pam. I just really mean to say, we can be okay with no feeling that way right now, what with all that is going on in the world. But to search with earnestness and with passion and belief, we find that happy.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  6. B,

    Don’t know what you’re going to write, eh? Uh huh. I don’t think I could handle it when you DO. Bloody hell this is brilliant and beautifully written prose.

    I come out of reading these posts of yours (which I always read twice and thrice), feeling like I’ve just been given an education. The number of times you’ve sent me to The Google…

    Now all that said, I am with you. Life gives us all sorts of challenges – and yes, we could say the year 2020 smacked us good in the kisser – but it’s really up to us to fight back, To adapt. To make the light and find the good.

    And there is so much good.

    Speaking of sending me to The Google. I checked out this fantabulous video’s translation into English. Bloody noses, but we stand up. Fucking A.

    Q

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  9. Brilliant … absolutely brilliant and fitting for the day and time. The idea of possessing & using the light instead of looking for it is spot on. – but my favorite line – “We learned yet again that the world is forged in laws that are graceless and thieving. It fumbles the ball on mercy because it’s too busy swimming through the dredge that delivers us from ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” .. and the song & video – simply wow – even more than the whipped cream, nuts, and cherry for the sundae. Happy New Year, kind sir.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  12. You had me at the Billy Joel quote, drew me in more with the sign from The Ditch (a famous one that’s just two miles from me in Austin, Texas) and delayed the deal with phrases like “we make tomorrow happen … on the salt of our steps.” How about we say, Happy – but Keeping it Real – New Year.

    PS. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. As soon as I can get a new (or at least less dim) bulb and fix the damn switch!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Get out! The sense of humor you peeps have, it should be bottled and sold. Pronto.

      Always keeping it real my friend.

      Haha! There is goes again. Tell you what, you bottle this stuff and it will sell like gangbusters on Amazon.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I meant sealed the deal but you get me. Sometimes I’m mildly amusing. There’s just one reality?

        This lyric came to mind from fellow Texan and Eagle Don Henley in Long Way Home:

        Oh it’s cold and lonely here
        In this telephone booth
        There’s three sides to every story, baby
        There’s yours and there’s mine and the cold, hard truth

        There’s yours and mine and the cold, hard truth.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  13. Dude this was such a truthful and genuine post. You be flexing your Yoda muscles word master 🙂 You always come through dropping wisdom and knowledge behind some sweet lyrics. Opening with Billy Joel that right there brother … c’mon now, c’mon. That’s was some good stuff. Definitely accurate. I think that the Zen of peace is what drives most of us because these fools be constantly fumbling the ball. That was a great line. A good way to open up the New Year is reading something from you, hitting the spot like warm, cozy covers on a cold morning. Plus the video! I had never heard or seen them before but I really enjoyed it. Had to look some stuff up. Loved the message behind it live it and loved it because we still stand up. Damnnnnnnnn dude you were on it! Salud!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Cali,

      Haha . . I like that. My Yoda muscles huh? Imma keep that one handy.

      How could I NOT start with him when it comes to such a year as 2020 gave us. I mean, after all . . we DIDN’T start the fire. But we had to plug our way through it.

      Always fumbling, seriously! I mean, would it kill them to learn how to hold onto the ball? Once?

      Muchas gracias to you, lovely. And here’s to 2021!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. I so love the last paragraph. Peace, without it, where are we? You used powerful words like, graceless and thieving, with backup phrases such as…sugary propositions and tumbling madness.
    You remind me to never forget how we’ve been bitch-slapped into humility, our sass and entitlement left by the curb.
    A truly beautiful piece, Marco. Truly!!! Susannah

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • I think social media has the ability to usurp our humility by giving a stage to things that just don’t matter. It’s one thing to share recipes and ideas and crave-worthy gets, and quite another to believe that your ham sammie is the best one going and that the entire world is going to stand on its head to get a look.

      I remember when books on stoicism were dominating WP like brushfire, and yet, I had to wonder, based on a few such fans I knew personally . . were their lives in keeping with the stuff? I wasn’t seeing it . . .

      Go with grace to win. It’s the only bet the house ain’t gonna take you to the cleaners on, I say.

      Thank you for this wonderful comment, SB.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.