The age old question of old
age occurs when you look in the mirror and an old person is staring back, and
you ask yourself: When did I get so fucking old? Not; how
did I live so fucking long – because it doesn't seem long to you.
You are born and you die: you
don’t remember the first and you won’t remember the last.
Along the train ride of life
you decided that what you are doing is important – that you are moving toward a
goal and that you and the rest of the world will reach nirvana when all your
goals are met – but your goals were always ill defined – it is just moving
ahead that is important.
You meet, you fuck, you
marry, you fuck, you shoulder responsibilities, you have opinions, you work,
you travel… And time passes. At
some point it becomes a reality that life is finite. You are riding on this train with no
destination but you will have to get off before the last stop.
Humanity has been able to
escape Darwinism because of its ability to communicate. Communication has led to cooperation and
innovation; but this same communication has allowed corporate and individual
greed and avarice - wars and genocide - rape and disaster and unbelievable mass-inhumanity on a grand scale. The outcome only reinforces
the maxim that we are semi-intelligent animals living in a meaningless world;
and our destination is nowhere.
It’s only Rock and Roll
Everyone dies
Go with the flow
And try to have a few laughs.
Cletus Purcell (James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux series.)
Have a good day
the Ol’Buzzard
I love the train metaphor. I worked as a RR drawbridge operator for 5 years, what metaphorical role would I play in your analogy? I think evolution is a collective thing. We never stop evolving collectively as a specie. It is all about continuity and you are never really as alone as you think you are or want to be. Evolution sometimes creates dead ends, but more often, bottle necks....getting to the next stage for this semi intelligent specie is going to be tough going through the present bottle neck were seem to be stuck in...some of us are there all ready, most of us are still living in the cave stage frightened of the night sky.
ReplyDeleteWe were lucky to have lived during "good" times Buzz. Sometimes when I take a look around at all the anger and general messedupness of living today, I am grateful I am old and soon will not have to tolerate a human life any longer.
ReplyDeleteThey were good times. And even though I lack a future I try to enjoy myself on a daily basis.
DeleteTherein madness lies. Do not think about WHY we as humanity or even as individuals are here in the long haul or even in the medium haul. You are right, we are here for the ride and where or when we get off is not known to us, nor even why we are on the train.
ReplyDeleteIt is all about the ride
DeleteO'B
There will come a time when it's time to pull the pin and let the train continue on its way. None of us will probably have any say on when the pin gets pulled, but the pin will be pulled.
ReplyDeleteIf I'd known I'd live this long, I'd've taken better care of my self!!
If I had known I would live this long I would have been even crazier when I was young and able.
DeleteO'B
When I was young, I never believed I would live to be 30, so I did a lot of crazy things, I was kind of obsessed with my own mortality...now that I've lived way past my expiration date, it really doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. I just keep on doing what I'm doing and one day I won't do it no more....sounds like a song....
ReplyDelete