Do I win you over with a delusion? a lie? or...
do I get you with the truth?
Come Get Me
Do you ever wonder what wins you over? I mean... do you remember the last time you were won over by, say, logic...?
We're both single. gainfully employed and in agreeable health. why not take a leap of faith on the basis of, oh, cognitive evaluation? Why not save on essential expenses we would share. to live a little better than we could otherwise materially afford?
All the evidence advises this choice as the one... that's smart. Right?
*
I mean... do you remember the last time you were won over by, say, reason...?
A house is an investment. in our wealth, future, and security. so. let's move on and move in after appraising data points and statistical trends! Buying a home can be emotionally fraught but data is, well, unimpeachable ground.
A house can be fixed up, over, and sideways but data... cannot be fixed. Sure.
*
I mean... do you remember the last time you were won over by, say, common sense...?
The future is coming for us and relying on handouts as octogenarians isn't a plan for a comfortable long goodbye. The writing on the wall says: save aggressively and live frugally until our time's up, as of yesterday.
It is our responsibility to afford... our old age. No?
*
Needless to say, that is not exactly the way we are... is it? I mean... we talk about logic and reason and common sense but we don't live by words that strip us of our messiness.
Without apology. we tell ourselves stories. about our cogency. our absence of bias or malice. and our rigorous contemplation of all the facts.
As if every decision. from the sounds that alert us to wake to the tools that purge us of waste. is as considered as rendering verdicts of utmost stakes.
Even as what defines our decisions. momentous and mundane. are flaws. emotions. and human.
*
Which brings me back to: do you ever wonder what wins you over? Because every one of us. living with ourselves and each other. have been won over. by
something.
When has it ever been a decision. to reject beliefs untethered by reality? because common sense won. or to ignore how we feel? because cold rationality won. or to accept frailty and fallibility? because it would be illogical not to.
After all... that is not the story we tell ourselves. about: why we choose each other. why we strive for places to call ours. why we live to never say goodbye.
*
In the end: it's not the truth that owns us
because it's not the truth we live with.
Epilogue
We belong to what gets us. You see,
a delusion. a lie. gets us. the way the truth can't. fictions. myths. win us over. the way the truth won't. because what we live with is our choices.
not logic. or reason. or common sense. because our decisions. momentous and mundane. are flawed. emotional. and human.
*
Still, the truth keeps being true. Though it 'wins over' no one. Though it 'gets' no one. Because 'getting' and 'winning' are neither the means nor the ends. Instead:
'being true' is the means and the ends and. all. that's. real.
Which is to say in other words:
if 'owning' you is, say, the why of delusions, lies,
do you ever wonder what the why of the truth is?
M
Thank you for this. In this time leading up to so many consequential events, it is important for the masses to be reminded that the worst sin you can commit is to destroy everything and betray all that is true for nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteYour words give us courage to face the uncertainty that is our future. It gives our tired feet a welcome relief and the renewal to continue to march towards freedom and truth. When the sky becomes grey and all around us masked in a dreary fog of low hanging clouds of billowing smoke from the enemy, you shine through and show us the way through the traps. I love you and with each of your thoughtful and articulate posts I can continue to refuse the cynical call of just giving up and giving in. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMore have hopelessly ceded humanity for modest handouts of naked emperors where we surrender principles, souls, and the labor of those before us to avoid a disruption to an existence that we are told is more than meager when it is far below that. We lose strength, give up the pride of what can be done, and forfeit the passionate intensity to stand by what is right and just. The state, the party, the organizations, the associations, and corporations all drum to us to be content and comfortable with what we have been given and what is bank so that it shapes us into shackles that we cannot escape. And then we believe – we cannot do anything to change it all. Yet – the is a clear call that we can do everything. For there is one that will not be gagged, that speaks even when she feels not heard. In the end, if you feel as I do – a passion renewed by this wonderful woman then do as I will do – listen to the message and realize that your vote can be the beginning of a change and a journey back to something meaningful.
ReplyDeleteIt’s far easier to be duped into a belief that others in their passionate intensity stand for something when they are reality nothing more than servants of the Void, purveyors of nothing and destroyers of everything.
ReplyDeleteYou should spend less time listening to yourself speak and more time speaking to help others understand the grandness that is a community serving but one god. The universe would thank you.
ReplyDeletePlease remember that… her right is… Nutcracker… and her left… is too painful… to name… shudders…
DeleteI once heard that stupid is knowing, seeing, experiencing the truth but still acting like it doesn't exist because it simply does not get you or give you what you want. I used to agree but now believe it's not ignorance or stupidity but rather that the truth is not giving you anything other than itself which in the end will be worthless to those who want their milk for free.
ReplyDeleteYou are cured... a whole paragraph... with not one... bleeped word... I am so... proud of you...
DeleteSome of you are free to worship what is true and divine even though it means worshipping a coward, backbiter, fornicator who punishes you for having the audacity to think anything other than what you are fed. And yet it is the other side that is cancelling you and doesn't get you.
ReplyDeleteBelonging is a powerful thing to a social creature that defines its worth by being understood, heard, and appreciated. It's so powerful that many will give away everything just to be part of something, to believe that their life has meaning, that they are part of a play on universal scale where their actions are guided by something all-powerful. Life should have meaning, life should matter, am I right? Yet, what happens when in your desire to belong and to matter, you follow lies and charlatans? Does that absolve you of sin and guilt in the eyes of those gatekeepers who will judge you? I pray for the rapture if only but to expose how many will not perish on that day and realize that belonging led them to the gates of hell instead of having of being spared in death.
ReplyDeleteYou can judge a book by its cover but you might miss out on the best story ever told. You can judge a person by the warmth of their smile but you might regret that they stole all that is you and sold you to a life you did not desire. We will always have lands of unicorns and bears regardless of the miles in between us.
ReplyDeleteBears are overrated...
Delete