Category: Literature

A Man Like Us

The Unknown Citizen – W. H. Auden

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
  saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content 
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
  generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
  education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

I had to study this poem for an exam, and only then did I realize its beauty. I read through once, and it just struck me unlike anything else I’ve read recently.

It’s the life of an unknown citizen. 

It’s the life a person not unlike you and I.

It’s my life.

And then it hit me. I could live a simple life, an unknown, insignificant life and die the same way.

It’s the nature of life. There’s not much I can do about it.

Not everyone becomes recognized. Not everyone’s good under the limelight. Most of us end up as unknown citizens. 

It’s a little sad when you think of it that way.

Nevertheless, Abraham Lincoln offers some solace,

“God must love the common man. He made so many of them.”

Well, whether we end up unknown or super-famous, it never hurt to try.

The Question, That Moment

moment

We all get to a point where we realize the truth.

One life. Wild and precious. Are we doing what we really want to do? Or are we just making excuses, and whiling away the time?

It’s a powerful question, isn’t it?

Amazing how it just comes out of nowhere and puts you off balance. In this race called life, what would we see if we stopped and turned around?

It’s the question to topple our lives. For the better.

The Bearded Bard

The best thing about the Bard: he makes you think. He fills you with wonder, shows possibilities you hadn’t considered, and leaves you in a flurry of amazement.

bard

Shakespeare’s command over the language stuns me. How could one man possess such understanding of the language we hold dear?

Words are sharp, they are powerful. They inspire all kinds of emotions. The good, the bad – they’re all in words. Even those deep feelings we can’t put into words  —  Shakespeare has his way of bringing them to our mind’s eye.

He makes you feel the word. Is it the wording, or a full stop in place of the overused exclamation mark? A little use of the license, or a negligible grammar violation that makes a tasteful piece of writing?

No one does it as well as the Bearded Bard.

If words be actions, Shakespeare can make you cringe in shame, in such a way that you relive that moment each time you face a mirror. All these, without laying a finger on you.

The sheer thought of such power scares me.

Everything the man ever wrote is wisdom for a society that’s as foolish and as ignorant as ours. There never will come another writer whose works live as long as Shakespeare’s. Five centuries old; still as attractive, as delectable as fresh pie.

Though he largely referred to the Elizabethan society, his works seem tailored for us.

That makes me wonder  —  why do we have such a society? A society that holds self before anything else, one that judges people on birth, instead of the person they’ve become.

Why are we such Assholes?

It’s all in the marriage of two minds.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

We are a society that prioritizes the need for a partner. For everything. It begins at school when we look for a lunch buddy, visit the restrooms in pairs, or hang out in groups.

Solitude is taboo. We grow up to that principle. We are so accustomed to the warmth of human companionship that we reach a point where the quality doesn’t matter as much.

We’re happy as long as we have a partner. Perhaps that’s what forces us to rush into relationships, both marital and otherwise.

Perhaps we don’t dedicate thought to the person we commit to spending our time with. Because when we do, we realize the subtleties and positives of the relationship.

If only people’s minds were married instead of the bodies, we would have a whole different populace.

Our attitude toward life would differ. It would be a full, retrospective thought process, where we’d have worthy priorities.

People would marry for true love, they would sacrifice, and do so, knowing the consequences. And everything we do would have clarity. Our society would sincerely respect each other.

Or as the great man says himself, we’d know from experience,

“Love is not love … which alters when it alteration finds,”

Once we realize the truth in those words, nothing would be greater than true love. Love that spreads warmth and compassion across the world.

And that would be a world worth protecting.

Then The Worst Happened

changed souls

Sometimes, it only takes one small incident to change us. A word of love, or a word in haste, a disaster, a tiny flaw – whatever it is, it changes us. And once that happens, we’re forever free.