When In Doubt Play Dead
A Brother Playing Dead
A Godless Universe
Atheism is not good for your mental health.
It tends to produce a mental state called Existential Angst.
The way I figure it, whether you believe in a Creator or not, you’re still in the same hole.
Might as well believe in a great spirit of some sort.
Why be depressed?
You might be among of the lucky few that actually get off on a bleak godless universe. My dead friend Wild Nick introduced me to Existentialism. We were freshmen in high school. Nick had just completed his first painting entitled Man Digging His Own Grave composed in Picasso’s Blue Period style.
I don’t have an image of Nick’s original painting for your critical perusal. The picture is still vivid in my memory after more than fifty years. It looked something like this.
The Existentialism he shared with me came through this novel.
Quite possibly the bleakest Happy Ending of any novel ever written.
Nick got off on the absurdity of existence.
The NOTHINGNESS of it.
He felt it was great that no plan or directive informed the heavens. He loved to say, Don’t moralize, man. He lived the life of a totally amoral caricature of a human being and loved every minute of it.
Of course he was only fourteen.
He died at forty and was essentially the same amoral being at the end of his life as he was at the beginning. I have nothing but fond memories of Nick.
I wonder though how he might have revised his celestial viewpoint had he made it to seventy and beyond.
It’s gotten harder for me to maintain a rigid world view as I age.
I’m an Old Fart still wondering what it’s all about.
I know, I know…put my curiosity with a nickel and I’ll be smoking a five cent cigar.
God’s chosen people
The Old Testament says certain Human Beings were singled out by God.
They were the Chosen People.
That means, for The Chosen, the Universe is not Indifferent.
Life is not meaningless.
There is a God.
The New Testament, thanks to Jesus, upped the ante. Now ALL HUMAN BEINGS have the opportunity to embrace everlasting life.
To be a CHOSEN PEOPLE.
Isn’t that nice!
It doesn’t jibe with Science, but it’s nice.
I think Jesus had the right idea
What he got wrong, I think, is the Demographic.
The Whole Demographic.
I mean, why should people be singled out for everlasting life?
I sort of like people because I’m one myself.
But I don’t necessarily hold a high opinion of People.
To be honest, I have a higher opinion of the brothers than I do of the human race.
These little buddies are the chosen people!
They’ve been around for half a billion years. People, maybe two million years, if that.
These experts keep digging up older bones and claiming they’re humanoid. There’s a point where a baboon is just a baboon.
Round, round, get around, we get around!
So I figure Cockroaches get seniority.
And what have the brothers been doing in five hundred million years of scurrying around the planet? I don’t know. I do know this. They haven’t caused any trouble.
People are trashing the planet while Cockroaches contribute to its health.
If anything, People were chosen to bump off the Earth.
Satellite image of Southeast Asian haze.
I mean, come on. Isn’t that the first thing you’re supposed to learn in life: don’t shit in your own nest.
Human Beings, the allegedly Chosen People, are a Blight.
I’m going with the Roach God
Khepri will do fine.
I figure he represents roaches as well as dung beetles.
They’re like cousins.
As for the Brothers.
I like the way the little peckers think.
You see, I, myself, I THINK like a roach.
When in doubt, I run away, or play dead.
I’m good at playing dead.
Been doing it all my life.
I don’t know what’s better. Playing Dead. Or…
Being Dead.
I’m not gonna to worry about it.
For now I’ll go with Pretending.
As long as I’m blessed with a Great Spirit, I figure I’m good.
Should I build myself a Khepri Shrine?
Maybe later.
The main thing is the relief I feel, knowing I’m covered.
There’s a real comfort in knowing somebody up there is looking out for Old Gloomy.
I’m not gonna obsess over the meaning of life, either.
The Brothers don’t.
The same goes for these dudes.
Mutt and Jeff aboard Scruffy
4 thoughts on “When In Doubt Play Dead”
As I learned in the Marines, better to play dead eyes open than closed…course the zombies pretend to see.
Good old Camus, wrapped around a plane tree with his agent, what 45? His big throw of the dice. “There is only one really serious philosophical problem,” Camus says, “and that is suicide.” But I know a quote by another frog that wraps it up: The thing you fear most has already taken place.” Three guesses and the fourth doesn’t count. Here’s one for the road:
“There are two voices and the first voice says, ’Write.’” “And the second voice says, ‘For whom?’” “And the first voice says, ‘For the dead thou didst love.’”And the second voice says, ‘Will they read me?’” And the first voice says, ‘Aye, for they return as posterity.’”
John Berryman who when he jumped from the Minneapolis bridge, left a note for Robert Lowell in the shoes Berryman removed before swandiving into nothingness: “Your move>” Which it always is, no matter how much your mouth is cotton clotted with excuse for why you won’t make the move: not THAT one he you’ve spent your whole life agonizing until the hole closes over you. Cheers, and not the fuckin’ TV program.
The Book of Job is definitely the most “existential” Unless you consider Jonah, where God is stuck with a half-assed prophet begging to be killed.
Most of my dreams involve playing dead and sneaking off. I love the feeling of walking away from people and never having to engage with them again as long as I live. First I like to hear your story but like a tape deck I want the ability to fast forward , rewind and erase . I’m becoming more and more invisible and it’s kinda nice except when you need someone to see you. That doesn’t happen very often. Today was a day I needed to be seen and ask questions . I saw talking heads with words but nothing being said . some days are like that. one guy did tell me [be safe] after I purchased some toothpaste at target. Hardly anyone was in target .I said yeah dodge those bullets . That was all I could come up with.
You are a poet.