Whatever flag of stupidity the world has been waving above itself for the last two years, add another stripe. Sew another dumb crest on every soldier’s sleeve.
Whatever we are meant to be learning about “together” and “connected” and “peace in our time,” we could be learning it better. 1918, 1939, 2001, yesterday . . . pandemic, tanks in town, a capital bombed, leaders who love blood . . . everything which reminds us we are alive reminds us of our mortality too, that we too will become zero.
Against this news--news of our divinity?--do we not tantrum? Do we not cry and mew, in body, with soul, and as the psyche we project into the world?
But we cannot wall it off, mask it away, or dial it down--our fear. We can’t even bomb it dead.
If aching bodies, shaky souls, and fragile psyches attest to the noose of time, let that be O.K., a covenant with what must be and reason to practice common sense and basic science. Then invite Vladimir and Donald and Tucker--heralds of jihad, champions of self, hawkers of certainty--down from the world stage.
I’d count pride and ego and a tribe of killers paid to cheer you on as one, not as nothing. And wave the flag of “live longer, kill less.”
Because any unstupid god shoots at zero. And we shoot at too much.