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1/4/17
past midnight
A train derailed today. My commute was vaguely affected. I had to take a different route. It took longer than usual. And then I was home, eating a piece of chocolate, kissing my boyfriend and relaxing. Sirens wailed around me as I walked from the train I had taken, which arrived safely. Sirens have been wailing around me for the past week, on their way from one emergency to the other. Yet I make it to my destinations unharmed. On January 2nd, the news was discussing all the tragedies from New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. People shot and killed, homes catching fire, fatal drunk driving accidents. Yet I pass through the streets peacefully. And it is rare that I do hear about tragedy befalling someone close to me. I have been contemplating this.
*
Chaos swirls around us at every moment. The Earth itself is spinning like a top around a star that will one day destroy us, in an almost totally unpredictable environment. There is but a thin veil of ozone and magnetic field protecting us from certain death, which even so, are uncertainties themselves. And yet we walk about like pinpoints of calm amidst the multitude of storms. Until we collide with each other, like planets pushed off course. Or perhaps galaxies, which are moving on course, yet headed towards each other. Who can say whether destruction is on course or off course? We are walking universes, made up of our own countless solar systems (atoms) and galaxies (cells) being bombarded by free radical meteorites and unknown particles invisible to our eyes.
*
While I have knowledge of the destruction that swirls about me, for some reason, I do not fear it. Nor do most people I know. I see peace even as I hear the sirens behind me. I buy fish for dinner and hold my boyfriend’s hand. We smile at small dogs and their owners walking them. I see this same behavior all around me. Peace amidst chaos. I don’t know why. The nature of duality, darkness and light, opposites attract, we must have positive and negative charges in order to exist in form; perhaps. So it appears to be. And so here we all are, walking about like pinpoints of calm amidst the multitude of storms…until we collide.
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