7.5 Comparison

COMPARISON
by Eric Chaet

I can’t help comparing my wealth, such as it is,
to Warren Buffett’s, Bill Gates’, the Sauds’, the sheikhs’,
to others’ sitting at the counter drinking coffee,
or encountered walking or in the traffic of trucks & cars,
to sports & entertainment stars’:
comparison is something that I do.

Rightly done, it yields better choosing how to proceed,
better achieving what I’m better able wisely to decide to attempt.

So I compare my wealth, as well,
to the earthworm’s, robin’s, mouse’s, beggar’s, telemarketer’s, tree’s.
I compare my wealth to the CEO’s, employee’s, fired employee’s,
to the man’s or woman’s no one will employ
whether because of character flaws or lack of preparation,
or because of the insufferable habit of seeing thru pretenses.

Likewise, I compare my power
to Caesar’s, Napoleon’s, the Pharaohs’, Popes’, Genghis’, & Timur’s—
but also to the soldiers’ of all ranks & living or dead,
to the frantic mothers’, caught accidentally between violent enemies,
to the bacterium’s, virus’s, invalid’s, infant’s,
to the dog’s, corpse’s, stem cell’s, cancer tumor’s mutant cells’.

I compare my skill, too,
to the mechanic’s, surgeon’s, attorney’s, plumber’s,
to the skills of those who design, build, & maintain
the lines & supply-chains of communication, electricity, & fuel,
& food, & information, & the vehicles & roads & air & sea ports—
I compare what I must pay to partake
to what I think it’s worth to me, & what I’ll have to rule out.

I compare my skills, too,
to the skills of those whose work seems to me unwise or trivial—
yet whose performance is excellent, extraordinary—
the most brilliant ball-players’,
clever politicians’, secular or ecclesiastic,
however bravely forthright or disingenuous,
whether they manage to achieve some good, or brake some evil,
or are the initiators of the evil, or enablers or complicit—
& to the skills & achievements of the most innovative
entrepreneurs, scientists, deal-makers,
whether what they do helps or makes things worse for people,
or helps some people & hurts others—
& to the skills of those whose performance is grudging or pedestrian,
or a triumph of the will in the face of handicap, yet still average or below.

I compare my skills & achievements, too,
to those of other artists, rightly or wrongly acclaimed or overlooked—
the horde of poets’, for instance,
whose work is all complaint,
or in clever praise of the consolations of the defeated & deranged,
pretending to one another that they’re secretly triumphant,
rather than overcoming what’s holding them back & down,
accidental, unjust, or some lack of understanding—
their own, or the society’s prevailing lack of understanding,
confusion, prejudice, delusion—
also to Beethoven’s, Rembrandt’s, Whitman’s, Nietzsche’s, Plato’s,
the skill & achievement of the I Ching’s & Bhagavad-Gita’s authors,
Van Gogh’s, Cezanne’s, Bach’s, Coltrane’s, Charlie Chaplin’s,
to those whose names we’ll never know
who composed the brilliant little songs, stories, melodies
repeated generation after generation,
without any formal presentation,
among men or women or children, or from mother to child—
the skill to learn what they’d learned,
& decide what to communicate & need not be communicated,
launching their imaginations’ irresistible & indestructible progeny.

Comparison is something that I do, something everyone does,
usually very badly, usually with insane results—
insane over-confidence yielding tragedy,
or insane sense of inferiority & defeat, life’s opportunities forfeited—
which you & I, which everyone must do well—or suffer the consequences.

///

///

Picture: Mz3, 3,000 to 6,000 years ago