Matchstick houses, and Jimi Hendrix
The fulcrum upon which the axis of dignity and equity rests cannot be turned by the actions of only one person.
Our minds tend to weave a story
wherein we are the central figure.
In this narrative, everything we do, think, and say
is a product of our own making and
ultimately adds up to something big
- a someone.
For operating purposes,
this collection of shoulds and shouldn'ts,
would or wouldn't,
past and future images
seems to work for
or against us at times.
Under scrutiny, though,
it is a matchstick house
held together by trickery
or maybe if we could smell it,
some droplets of glue.
A house like that
fails against the slightest storms.
If we could wrestle ourselves away for a bit,
from the tedium of collecting more pieces to add
to the frail structure of "I am,"
we might find a bit of freedom
from our Sisyphean struggle.
A wave of humility might dawn
shocking us from slumber
awakening our senses to this marvel marble
built up solid liquid and gas possibilities.
In our curiosity
we could ask the right questions
and unlock our own mysterious nature.
Rather than continue to play the comparison game
and shaming each other as our
false meritocracy drown us all,
maybe we could lift each other up.
We are, everything is,
a subset of an unobservable
and self-governed unsolvable order
whose operating principles
are mostly unknown to us.
We exist as a pinpoint of a pinpoint
on the ball of a cosmic question mark.
We share the same planetary home.
We are all subject to the same laws of nature.
We all thrive together or we perish.
Through collective awareness,
abandoning our meritocratic fantasies,
setting down the crucible of retribution,
disarming ourselves against threats unmet,
ceasing the endless pursuit of glory in heaven or on earth,
we can come home
to the tender and vulnerable warmth of life
living without justifications, boundaries, or allegiances.
For now,
nested in our own perch,
bought or paid by each day's wages,
our eyes to the horizon of what is coming,
"All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix)."