Bokonon Stan.
Bokononsense.
“All of the true things I’m about to tell you are shameless lies.”
This may be Bokonon-sense, but when things like a 7.0 earthquake in Haiti happen, I have a tendency to be happy. Sure, that sounds like Schadenfreude, but think of it this way: if you’d have been there, you couldn’t do anything to help. There was a tragedy; there are always tragedies; “so it goes.”
Should we do what we can to help? Of course, but that’s not the point. The point of any exercise of human compassion is always selfish, but that’s not the point either. The point of any human tragedy is to reveal the importance of humanity in all of its capacity. Could I do absolutely nothing about Haiti? Sure, it’s no different than what I’m doing now; are there other things that I’m doing? Sure, but that’s not the point either. The point is that everyone likes to help, “likes and dislikes have nothing to do with it”, and everyone likes to be seen helping. Because I’m neither an NGO nor a world renowned philanthropist, I can’t do anything; this column is worthless; it’s an opinion piece; my opinion is that there are a lot of great successes in the world; PALS is a success; Recyclemania is a success.
We can’t predict tragedy; we can’t really mitigate it; we can’t heal its wounds; we can’t make the world better by wishing it so; we can’t use five semi-colons in a row in two consecutive sets without realizing that “all a semi-colon proves is that you’ve been to college.” That’s really my point, friends and neighbors, whether we come from small towns in small counties (yours truly included) or big cities with big skylines, we’re all connected by the foma that education makes us more capable to handle tragedy or more capable to find meaning or success. Can we fix the earthquake in Haiti or the hurricane that will ravage the Caribbean every year or the next civil war that rips apart an already fragile region or whatever the next pool-pah happens to be? We can’t, I’m sorry, but we can’t. The imperative, saints and sinners, is that we recognize that every so often we enjoy a genuine moment and make a genuine difference.
What’s the point of any of this nonsense? The point is that, at any given moment, life can be relatively swell in these parts (relative to Pyongyang or Port-au-Prince) and we should enjoy it while it lasts (it won’t forever); “sometimes the pool-pah exceeds the ability of man’s power to comment”, but sometimes the only thing we can do is give a little time, a little money, or a little effort and try to move on. So it goes. Do what you can: “Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.” It’s a busy universe out there kiddies; busy, busy, busy… … …
