Dear Editor,
No one asks to be born. It happens. It might be planned to some degree but there is little we have control over. Time. Place. Race? Orientation. Limbs. Human. Life. Death. Beauty. Poor. Rich. Short. Tall. Inequality. Ad infinitum. Sometimes we are born into luck; at other times, less; most times, a lot less. Predictably too many times. That is the tragedy of life; it happens not only when you are born.
So the idea of birth and belonging is a dubious ideal. But yet we must, limitly, for there is an interconnectedness of and with humanity, one recognizes (or should) each other – that is our existence, a social contract of sorts, our humanness, our destiny, our ability to avoid interconnectedness, our ability to think, to care, to empathize, to hate, to love, to destroy, in this Anthropocene.
Our capacity and capability to exist has taken millions of years, from walking on our hands and feet to developing another artificial intelligent species – Sophia. There is much that evolved on in our brain, which we take for granted, because it took centuries to create and cultivate from various homo species, animals, atoms, and neurons. This complexity allows us to not only to understand but also to reflect.
Try as one might, in spite of all this developed brain of millions of neurons, and the grand power of our existence and the ability to use language in its many forms, and to think (in)finitely, (though mostly we cannot know what we do not or cannot know). How can it not be a wonder that we live in such a world as we do.
Given that existence, a particular conclusion is that we lead lives of different tragedies. And trajectories; it is only fitting then that we try hard to lessen these tragedies as much as we can.
Lately, in different instances, there have been revolving tragedies. Tragedy after tragedy that could and should be lessened, if only there were little instances of not only kindness and empathy but interference and action on a personal, societal, institutional, and governmental levels. No one or nothing is left without blame. We are handful. But ultimately, all four are guilty, for tragedies continue unabated, generational.
From the different crimes to the sexual and/or physical abuse, these are not the only ones though; there are many ills of society: poverty, discrimination, climate/environmental degradation, gender inequality, health care, media, ambition, overpopulation, immigration, bullying, technology, depression, racism, drug/alcohol addiction, abuse, obesity, hunger, illness, and ultimately – weaponized dissent.
The effects of these tragedies are compounded, through the generations. Many times, it’s a revolving door. Someone has to shut the door. This could happen in various forms. If not the abused, who was previously abused will become another abuser. The thief will become the bigger thief, the abused becomes the abuser. Tragedies manifested in different forms. The consequences of tragedies persist. Hardly ever is there a regression. The logical conclusion is obvious.
So the consequential pain of these societal ills and tragedies is felt deeply every day by our mothers, fathers, grandparents, sons, daughters, cousins, uncles, aunts, friends, and strangers. The hope of a just and moral society is that we try to get out of life unscathed by these tragedies. But this is an impossibility. The question is what is possible?
If we don’t recognize the tragedies in their many forms, in the guise of the different and desperate lives around us, these instances will continue to happen – unabated. We have to live, however, up to the ideals of the rights and responsibilities of the existential presence.
If not, in the end, the tragedy of life may not be life itself but to recognize the self in others.
Pedro de Weever
