10.01.2019

A Desultory Diary, Episode 1

I don't like it, I admit it. I don't like it at all. (Man muss sich fügen, says the German philosopher inside me. Ja, I reply, das muss man).

We live in a world of ostriches. The younger birds live in a different world; they have no need to stick their heads in sand, for sand is all around them. Chicks unreflectingly think they are immortal parts of an immortal world; what they lack is power. Once they have that, they imagine, they will live forever.

Mature ostriches spend their time running around in order to stay in the same place. This takes considerable effort; they have time for little else. What about the 'old birds?'

Only they realize that they've been sticking their heads in sand since chickhood? 

No use to bend down and bill out a hiding place--the joke, of course, is that ostriches with heads in sand think they've found shelter, they think they're safe. Upright ostriches are able, however, to see their neighbors' naked and ridiculous exposure. Ha ha. Uprightness, however, never lasts long.

No need to bend down, for invisible sand, as it were, is the very air ostriches breathe. Irony of ironies: older ostriches, despite decreasing visual acuity, are sometimes, albeit briefly, able to see.

Seeing and not believing, however, can be dangerous.

Yes, you too shall die, my love, you too shall die.

I don't like it, I admit it. I don't like it at all. (Man muss sich fügen, says the German philosopher inside me. Ja, I reply, das muss man).

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