The other day, I watched a movie, “8 Slices”, written and directed by Nick Westfall.
Towards the end, one of the main characters in the film said 4 things that caught my attention:
“Nothing should be broken when everything is one.”
“Humanity is just a bunch of apes with ego trips.”
“We are just trying to find our way and individuality, as best we can, in this contradictory and beautiful world.”
“Words and the act of writing only point to a duality. They never get there.”
And he ended,
“If you know what I mean”.
This was a five-minute monologue, addressed to us watchers.
The background to all this, isn’t relevant here, what is, and what caught my attention and got me thinking were those statements, collectively and individually.
They led me to ask:
Why, as a species, as humans, do we seek to fragment ourselves, separate ourselves, impose races, “allocate” castes and ethnicities, uphold classes, and so on?
Why do we break the bonds and ties that bind us as a species? To what end? When our “genesis” IS common, and everything IS one?
Does our ego — for belonging to “a particular class, race, or ethnicity” — mislead and lull us into believing we deserve more, are more and therefore others must pander to us and our needs, and must recognise our supposed superiority?
Shouldn’t finding our way to our individuality in diversity — a life-long journey — fully occupy and lead us to live lives of tolerance, compassion and love?
Surely the finitude of our lives, demands it.
Oscar Wilde says, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That is all”.
As a writer, words are my forte, but what am I trying to communicate? What is the purpose of all this creative effort? What is it that I wish my readers to know? Is it a form of self-preservation, the fear of oblivion?
To live and not merely exist.
In my budding writing journey, I have always thought my calling was to seek and communicate insights that would touch lives and engender transformation in others and myself.
But now, I am slowly realising that it is more nuanced than that.
That I am at heart, a “Humanist”.
One who believes there is more that is good in us humans, than bad. That in and with my writing, the pivot should be to help speak more truth to our profound capacity for the good we are all capable of.
That the individual is good, in and of themselves and that — I posit — should be reflected in the collective as well.
That we should all speak to our humanity.
The cord that binds us.
We rise or fall together. Regardless!
Surely the knowledge we have garnered over the centuries, about ourselves, qualifies us to be called civilised above that “savage ape” we are so resolute to emulate.
By the way. The mutt and I
are serious, we do need an answer.