The Same Place Twice

Bad things happen. They have always happened. There has never been a single day otherwise. Dinosaur laid its eggs; turned around, they were gone. Oog created a family unit. Lost half to predators, half to sky. Lightning. No clue in his primitive brain that the fire it left was the world-changer he needed. Oog simply went away. But we found Oog's paintings in a cave. Oog preferred a mix of dark and red muds. Didn't know why. The words "personal" and "aesthetics" hadn't conjured themselves yet. Oog saw the world and placed himself in it, and here, now, we see the world through his eyes. Oog never had a single day that was not lightning, teeth or pain, but in every cave Oog huddled fearfully in while the night chased notions of strength and bravery away, Oog made sure to find the time to paint, even if nothing more than a tired, muddied hand slapped angrily against stone to show that he had made it another day.

There has never been a perfect day.

And yet we don't give up.

There's joy in repetition, so I repeat it: we don't give up. We will get kicked and we will get cut and we will die but, by the gods, we shove aside each and every day to get to the next in defiance of everything that tells us "No!" No matter how tired we get we tell this world with each breath that it has not...won...yet. Those who are lost and striking out have not won. The lightning has not won. We remain. We have slapped our hands against the wall before fitful sleep, but the reassurance of that stinging is the reassurance of the tiniest yet greatest victory: I am alive right now! And let not man nor animal nor principality dare to intervene.

The Glorious Revolution begins, ends, and begins each moment your mind allows you another day. May there be more illumination, more art, in 2014 and a lot less psychic blight. Tune out the false narratives of what passes for news on all our genius machines that forever scream hate's name. Tune out fear-driven bloodlust. Tune out the need for recognition. You are alive right now. That's all you need to know. Isn't that glorious enough?

A revolution of one toward the greater good.