Life is fleeting. We’re born into an obstacle course and we are on it until we die. Some races are slow and some are faster than we can manage, but somehow, most of us keep going. Even if we only get an hour for lunch.
We live on a planet that never stops reinventing itself, changing constantly, taking things away and bringing new things to the forefront, in the form of catastrophic events, over which, we have absolutely no control. We’re okay with that, living at the foot of a volcano, at the edge of an ocean, on land below sea level, building houses on fault lines. We have the ability to ignore the things around us. The danger, the idiocy, the lessons of the past. That’s the way it has to be, of course, or we’d never do anything at all.
We decide what’s important and what is not. We decide EVERYTHING, while we march, second by second toward the EXIT. Again, our brain tells us not to think about the end, but just believe that we are going to live forever, or at least long enough to do stuff, either way, there’s nothing to worry about. And our brain is right. If we knew ahead of time, what our lives were going to be like, when and how we were going to die, well, where’s the fun in THAT? Right? I mean we’d try and change things, in order to stop the bad things from happening.
Our priorities, as human beings, are twisted and not life affirming. Money, status, beauty (which changes constantly), things, names, position, etc., are pretty much all that matters nowadays. We are kept in line through violence and threat. We are conditioned to be sheep from our first breath and we rarely leave our jail cells, even though the doors are open.
We send our children to be killed in wars for profit. We DESTROY other countries and cultures, we brutalize women and children, animals and the environment and call ourselves civilized. We do all of those things, while horrified and shocked at the loss of a building in Paris.
Why is there no outcry for the children raped by the priests? For women beaten and murdered by men who see them as prey, as things, to be taken and used for their own pleasure or needs? Why is there no outcry for the poverty stricken grandmothers on the streets of Paris? Where are the voices screaming about children raped by…everyone, including those who are supposed to protect them? Where is the outcry for clean water, enough food, housing, education, medical treatment? I don’t see the 24-hour news saddened and upset about ANY of those things. But a building? Brinks, stones, glass, pretty statues…THAT is what matters. Not the masses, not the individuals, not the living beings. But a building. I don’t get that.
I think of all the white crosses under which our children and loved ones lay. Lives cut short, while no one is in the street shouting that enough is enough. No one is asking for MONEY to rebuild lives, those of the wounded, the families broken apart by death. Homeless kids, their parents tortured and murdered.
But a building, which feels no pain, which has no desire to continue, needs no food, or shelter, or medicine…THAT’S WHAT WE ARE UPSET ABOUT.
How is that possible? Maybe god got sick of the way people were acting. Maybe god wants people to wear sandals and sit on a rock and talk to each other. May god, is sick of his minions raping children, hoarding wealth, telling lies, being evil, promising heaven, for money, when no one knows whether or not it exists, maybe, if there is a god, that god is pissed off. Or maybe not.
Maybe it’s not a lesson but I don’t see why that shouldn’t be as true as anything else people make up about their god. So, I’m going with that. Maybe all the gods got together over a game of cards and felt bored, or sold out. Who knows? Then one of them, probably the catholic god, since he punishes everyone who doesn’t obey, said, let’s teach humans a lesson. Let’s give them another chance to see what’s really important. Let’s burn a lovely, iconic, money making, important piece of real estate to the ground, and see if they catch on.
Ganesh, of course, wanted to stop poaching and save the elephants, Buddha, just wanted to meditate and have people wait on him, as always. One by one, each god wanted something for HIMSELF. Quan Yin, said, “Hey, I’m still not opening my eyes until all suffering on earth has ceased.” The men all laughed at her, yelling, “Good luck with that and I like your dress.”
So the fire started and people jumped into action, to save the iconic and beautiful building. But it burned and burned and the hungry were not sated, and the beaten were still bleeding and the children were still broken and dying and the killing continued, as people PRAYED TO THEIR GOD TO SAVE A BURNING BUILDING.
It doesn’t matter what the building stood for. It was a building. Art is not meant to last forever, that’s why we clean out closets, to make room for new ideas and things.
Living beings should matter. They should count for more than a building and art. But they don’t. There’s something wrong with that. Dead building vs living beings. Hmmmm. People are willing to pay for a ticket to heaven, just not to stop hunger and violence.
Yeah, I will NEVER understand that.
Everything dies. The earth and our star will eventually die. The universe will die. Death is the other half of life. Buildings die too, and art. Every single thing that exists…will die. This is a place of life and death. That’s what it is. Now sit back and watch the money roll in and the rebuilding begin. No matter how much it costs, that church is going up. There’s no money to help people but you can be sure, there will be all the money that is needed to rebuild Notre Dame.
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Rethinking Life 
Written
on April 17, 2019