Sometimes I think of how nice it must feel to believe that one of the
two major parties is actually on your side, fighting for issues that matter to
you. To believe it arrogance to think that the future might ever depend upon anything
you will ever think, believe, say, or do. To believe that the future we all
need will be ushered in by individuals born to lead and to rule, people we need
only give our approval to. To sit on the sideline and shout our encouragement
to those who battle it out in the arena for our benefit.
But I have experienced that delusion, and I know that it has never
made me happy. Because while I can lie to my conscious self, I know that I can
never lie to my true self, my real self, my soul. While I tell my thinking mind
that everything is okay and a certain breed of supermen and superwomen are
shaping humanity's destiny as God or destiny instructs them, some part of me
knows it is merely a story I tell myself in order to avoid speaking up, acting
up, rising up. Holding on to such illusions has only ever caused me pain.
I am reminded of the traitor from The Matrix, the one who regrets
having been awakened to the truth and is willing to betray all his friends and
comrades in order to retreat to the security and small pleasures to be found in
the illusion of the matrix. But I know, as one who used to eat fake food in the
matrix, that it is better to experience all the horrors reality can inflict
upon us for a brief taste of something real.
Awakened, I taste the fruits that I have raised in my meager little
garden, recognizing them for the little miracles they are. I cherish each
genuine connection that I have with other humans, recognizing them as part of
the miracle of existence. I drink in the poems and prose, the lyrics and the
music, the paintings and the movies made by those in touch with something
beyond the matrix—and in turn I am in touch with the miraculous. And I realize
that what I call miracles are merely those moments where I am face to face with
reality, the matrix no longer standing between me and the awesome universe. Once
one has experienced miracles—which is to say, once one has opened oneself up to
miracles, to reality—one need never again fear gazing into truth. And once one
has done that, the matrix no longer has appeal, offers no joy, no temptation.
Having stepped outside the illusions, life is nothing but miracles.
No comments:
Post a Comment