9.9r’ Don’t Give Up

by Eric Chaet

Don’t give up
don’t give up on me or on you
sure, we haven’t accomplished what we hoped
& it’s way past time
human interaction was daunting enough
just the way we saw it from our youths
so crazy & unjust, delusion so pervasive
mediocrities celebrated
& cynical or terminally compromised
puppeteers behind curtains pulling the strings
turned out the world was hiding so much more
hubris & narcissism beneath noble-sounding rhetoric
& cruelty crueler than even the cruelest words
even those whimpering full of cunning more often than not
& scarcely believable ineptitude
beneath pretenses of confidence & ease
sure, we gave up on ourselves in dismay sometimes
exhausted by geometric progressions of failed attempts
we fell for stupid cues we’d been programmed to fall for
we gave in to temptations we resisted almost always otherwise
temptations we’d be hard on others for giving into
surrounded by others glad to welcome us as losers among them
let our guards down & got wounded
wounds that will be with us til we die
& wasted hours, days, weeks, months, years
in bitter or sour anger, shame, grief
the lessons weren’t the lessons we expected
turns out that what we blame ourselves for
are the most important lessons
more important than political, economic, or financial news
more important than mathematics or history, even
more important than the discoveries of scientists
who understand & who don’t understand what they’re doing
& the mystery of the origin & nature & purposes
of the world & life & our selves
more important than the skills & logistics of our industries
more important even than who controls the resources
to be allocated or misallocated
or totally wasted in self-indulgence
we’re not dead yet
&, oh, how what we hoped to accomplish
still needs accomplishing
for you, for me, for so many others
don’t give up.

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Picture: Cell division – Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology