Futility

Broken things. Broken people. Broken society. Broken. So much broken.

The landscape of our lives is broken. Curbs, streets, public transit. Government services and agencies. Work needing to be done but not accomplished. People seeking solace in drugs and booze and overwork and fun and so many things that don’t bring closure or purpose to life. So many people running around getting no where and getting so little done.

Boredom. Ennui. Play solitaire to engage the mind. But then that doesn’t do anything, either. It just passes time. Time and more time. Chores. Tasks. Needed to do but when done, they just need doing again. And again.

Take out that trash. Shovel that walk. Set the table. Clear the table. Wash the dishes. Go to bed. Get out of bed. Check the calendar and arrange the day’s activities.

How much of this is the same? How settled is the routine? Are we gaining ground on whatever it is we are doing? Or is it senseless and purposeless?

I think about Syria. Aleppo. Damascus. Today or in biblical times. We know these names from years spent in school and in Sunday school. We now read the same names in the newspaper or on the internet news feeds. Bombs dropped on neighborhoods where people live and work. Street fighting and civil war. Rebels and government troops. ISIS and international forces attempting to restore order and battle back which enemy? ISIS or the rebels, or the government troops, or Russia, or Turkish forces, or whoever? Who are the players this time? Who is friend and who foe? Do we know? Did we ever know?

Same old routine in Syria. People getting killed and killing. Government for the people, or maybe not. Who knows these things? Whose side is being propped up? Which side is getting gored? Who knows? Who cares? Does anyone?

Drilling for oil in the Middle East. Refining the oil pulled from the ground in the Middle East. Who refines it? Who stockpiles it and prepares it for distribution? Who then transports the oil, and to where? Who has bought the oil and how was the transaction managed? Who sold it, transacted the exchange of currency, recorded it and scheduled the shipping? And who then receives the oil and uses it? And where? So many steps in the transaction. Repeated over and over again each day. The commerce of energy. The commerce of politics and geopolitics. Power. money. Violence and death. Control.

Birthing of new babies. Raising the kids. Maturing to child rearing years. Having more babies. Educating each generation so life will be different, better. Yet the power struggles continue, and so too the violence and death. And yet people still have babies and generations come again and again.

To what purpose? To what destination are we steering our fates? We try for a better life. Tell that to the kids in Aleppo. Tell that to the kids in Calcutta or New Delhi, or any other huge, overpopulated city. Do they get the food they need? Do they get the schooling they need? Are there jobs to support their livelihood? Is the social contract working in these areas? Does life get better or just putter along?

Who is watching this? Who is caring about this?

The religions of the world build edifices in which to worship and conduct fellowship. Is the fellowship actually in those edifices? Or is it in the neighborhoods and cities?

Where is the cry for relevance and purpose? Where is the demand that life lead somewhere universally good? Of purpose. Of use?

Are we robots yet? Doing the routine without thinking and without real purpose, just the doing of it to keep our hands busy and our minds turned to ‘idle’?

We may spend a lot of time gathering food, preparing it, and eating it. This activity sustains life. We may work extra hard to maintain a splendid diet that does more than sustain life. Such would be food that inspires and creates exciting thoughts and futures.

When does one end – the routine and lowly – and the higher purpose begin?

Same for dress and housing. And transportation. And leisure?

We work for something better but when do we know when we have it? And then what do we do with our time and energy? Is it just the same thing over and over again like robots in a factory producing more and more of anything whether it is useful or not?

I’m thinking we need to ask these questions and earnestly find some answers that make sense. Mundane is not necessarily useless. Lowest common denominator might be purposeless. To what do we aspire? And is it worth it?

Really? Ask that question if you dare.

December 26, 2016