Waking up here in Nicaragua.
Wandering outside to take a piss - I’ve always loved that part of living in the countryside. Standing here relieving myself and looking out at the gorgeous view, this miracle of life and being alive.
Standing here and then there is a big “bang”. A “bomba” let off, bloody hell, it’s 6 am but that’s no surprise, this is Latin America after all. Then remembering - “aha!” it’s election day.
I do feel like Kafka, writing in his diary on the day World War 1 was declared, “Not much happened today.”
“Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.”
- Czeslaw Milosz
This country isn’t the first dictatorship I’ve lived in. I was even run out of one, back in the days when I thought one person could change the world - like all the propaganda, Jesus et al, tells us so. But it ain’t like that Dorthy - there is no Oz.
The world is as it is. “cultivez votre jardin”. I live, I breathe and like Arjuna in the Baghavad Gita, I must play my part, play my role. However, I do wish Krishna would appear and confirm all this.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I get mad, deliriously mad as the next guy - the 100s of political prisoners locked up here - the keys just thrown away. All the university kids killed on the street. The fear, the silent fear on peoples’ faces, as the baby-faced police roam in force and do the king’s bidding. It can drive you mad, the madness.
Yet, I live. I breathe. I eat. I defecate. I take the dog out for a walk. All this on election day. Miracle of miracles …
I will eat my bread in peace, and drink my wine with a merry heart. I won’t swim in fear. And if I ever do stick my machete into evil’s belly - it will only be because everything is just as it is …
I do hope everyone just stays home today. Sits on their thumbs. Walks along the sidewalk like a normal day, going, doing normal things. I do think this is the proper attitude despite all the Che Guevera design T-shirts out there, despite so many banging their tin pots, despite the myth of paradise on earth for all.
Let all dictatorships, all infamy rot on the vine because ultimately everything is as it is in this most purposeful of worlds.
“To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.” - Czeslaw Milosz
Everything Just As It Is
It’s all good.
Nothing happens
that isn’t good.
It’s just we’re not
capable of
feeling, seeing
THAT.
It’s all good.
Nothing is in vain.
Nothing is out of place.
Not one hair on
one ant’s itsy bitsy
insignificant neck.
It’s all good.
Even those angels dancing
on the head of a pin.
Lie down
and try to
feel, see
THAT.
It will do you good
for a little while
to existing in everything
just as it is.
There is no reason to vote. The election is rigged. Just stay home.