The Beloved Unborn

I wept for the only child I knew

How long did she live ? maybe a minute or two

All this pain, I deserve it. I truly do

Blame me, hurt me, take my whole life too

How could it be that you whom I did not know

Steals my heart and never let go

It’s been so long I do not even remember

But I still feel it in my heart, so warm like an ember

Days? Months ? or maybe years.

I do not recall, flooded with all these tears…

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We Are Eternal

We choose to believe that after us there will be others, that humanity have been and will always be part of this world. Part of this idea is egocentric of course. We love to believe that this world is made for us to explore and exploit, that we are in the center of the cosmos which is waiting for us to discover. This belief gives us a feeling of hope and a desire to live, an aim to seek after. We have shaped our ideas and beliefs to completely avoid eternal death. “God will grant us the after life”, “We will be reincarnated”, “This world is just one of many”… and so many other different versions of the story that serves one purpose, the feeling of immortality.
The world we live in, Earth, is indeed a very big place. With vast oceans and mountains reaching above the clouds, this seemingly endless world was a challenge for us to explore and conquer. From humble beginnings as hunters and scavengers, to modernity and space exploration, couple of thousands of years was all it took to make this planet under our control. This control however, came with a price, ourselves.

Rise of Individualism

Societies, cultures and eventually civilizations are built upon the idea of longevity. Certain individuals with a particular concept in mind initiate a process. “Exploring an unknown land”, “spreading agriculture”, “finding faith”… Whatever this “First Individual” initiated was on good will and intention to survive and expand, and he carried an entire tribe along with him. This person is a true leader (I will refer to him as the “True Leader” in the passages to follow). His ideas have proven worthy to follow. His followers needed him as much as he needed his followers to make his ideas a reality which have led to prosperity and a fruitful life.

The amount of collective work required to build a society is beyond comprehensible by a single individual. There are so many micro-management happening that no single person can keep track of. It is through trust and faith in others do we progress, knowing that everyone is carrying the same cause and working towards the same goal, that of the leader’s.
As the tribe grew stronger, at some point it settled its roots and expanded to become a civilization, and later on a nation with law and order. Today these nations know no single leader (except for totalitarian systems), but many who share ideas to run the state, and has established a democratic system, where law is above all. This gave the people the opportunity to choose whether or not they truly want to follow those who run the country, or completely abandon them. Back in the ancient world, abandoning your tribe and leader was either because of treason or exile. Today we live in the most free world we can every imagine. You can literally do whatever you want. No one tells you what profession to choose, no one tells you who to follow and where to go, you are free to choose, pick and go anywhere you desire. And we are. And with capitalism running the world, every individual has become even more bound to run after what he or she needs, and what makes him or her a living. We are acting more freely than we ever did, exploring the world on our own, holding onto ideas we believe they are right, the same way the true leaders I spoke of above in the old world did. This sounds all wonderful and inspiring, to be your own leader capable of doing whatever your heart desires. The only difference between the true leader and today’s young leaders, is that they have forgotten an important concept that made those true leader true, and that is the “We”, the idea of longevity which the true leader worked for. You see, today every person takes longevity for granted. For some reason we tend to believe that after we die other people will come along and continue what we’ve started, that this cycle of life and death has been ongoing for thousands of years, and will continue doing so. Not really though, we can be responsible for our own extinction, the same way we were responsible for the extinction of a lot of animals species on this planet, and we might be just another victim of our own actions.
This threat that is posed upon us has to do with the amount of freedom we have, with this individualism this world has been witnessing and also empowering. On one hand it is important to be that leader who can be a source of ideas and inspiration and progress. But on the other hand it can be a source of selfishness and negligence for those who come after. After all these individuals only seeks after their own goals, and rarely look at the bigger picture, which is going to happen after they’re long gone. It is only a true leader who is able to work towards his goal and convince others that it is a common goal we all need to share for the sake of the generations to come. Simply put, we lost the sense of common goal which our ancestors had, and have been acting individualistically and selfishly.

The Beloved Unborn

No one wants to know that they might be the reason behind human extinction. Nevertheless we are all contributing through our lack of responsibility. We live most of our lives for ourselves not for others. We never take a moment and think: ” For whom am I doing this ? For whom am I working so hard and trying to achieve many things in life ?” The answer seems obvious:” I am doing it for myself”, when the answer should really be “I am doing it for those to come.” Personally, I go to work everyday partly because I enjoy it and it is what I want to do, but a bigger part because I want to make this world a better place for those beloved unborn, the next generation, our children. Even this very humane purpose is somehow egoistic. I want the next generation to continue the work I started, and find answers to the questions I or we have raised. But being egoistic is different from being selfish. We all want something out of this life, but we shouldn’t take it from someone else’s.
We started this journey of humanity seeking survival, and now we take it for granted, although it is not. We should continue the legacy of those leaders who, and despite their primitiveness, understood the greater cause and the way to longevity through a grouped zeal.

I was
I am
And I will forever hold my role in this incredible story
Within dreams, love and memory
Somewhere, in the mists of humanity

The End, I-Exist (C)