THE WORM TURNS
LADY OPINE
Whom do you serve?
How many of us rise with the dawn, slog away at our daily tasks, return home in the evening, eat dinner and hit the hay in enough time to hopefully get what is usually an unreasonable night’s sleep, only to wake again with the dawn to do it all over again, every day, every week, for years on end? Most. That is the nature of existence as we know it. We work to eat, eat to work and sleep only when our fatigued bodies and brains collapse in demand of respite. When all is said and done, exactly what are we doing it for?
We exhaust ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally every day of the week in order to, if at all possible; providing everything is in order; the bills are paid and the larder is full, hopefully achieve some semblance of rest and relaxation on the weekend so that next week we may re-initiate the monotony once more.
In order to merely exist, we have been granted basic breath; but it is the gift of will and the ability to choose which has been given to us in order to live freely, yet so few of us are actually living the life we desire. Every day we re-affirm to ourselves with our very action of doing that which we particularly don’t wish to do, that we must live our life according to the desire, will and demand of others. Even in the little things we do we are negating ourselves within our own existence. Morning coffee, for example, is no longer a little pleasure which breaks our fast, arouses our senses and stimulates us into action for the start of a new and invigorating day as we sup it’s delightful aroma in contemplation of what we desire for breakfast this morning, giving quiet and contemplative thought to the day ahead . No, coffee is breakfast, and there is no time for thought anymore. Coffee is now a function, to be gulped down as quickly as possible in as much quantity as can be readily consumed within the short time frame of frantic activity that hurls us from bed to the workplace door.
Elevens’s, too, is no longer a morning tea break worthy of a mention, but yet another crammed coffee, and perhaps a biscuit if the people who are ordering our life allow such and for those amongst us who have not been placed entirely under the thumb of political correctness, possibly a cigarette, so long as it is done in a particular way, at an appointed place, within a given time frame, so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of those who actually choose not to partake of such.
Lunch barely has time to hit the base of our stomach before being churned into action as we meet the afternoon demands of those we work for, our hunger either not satiated at all, or so quickly sated per force that we would rather sleep it off than return to a labour we have no desire to continue with, at least for the remainder of that day. Afternoon tea, if allowed must be had on the run, and barely touches the sides as we begin to contemplate tonight’s dinner, something we really have no inclination to cook, but really would rather not face yet another take-away meal which we know is financially unviable and a detriment to us and our loved one’s physical well-being.
Once home, all we desire to do is sleep, but that’s not possible, not yet, as we must attend those evening commitments required by those we love; commitments which would otherwise be a pleasure to look forward to and enjoyable to do, but which have become a chore, tacked on the end of a daily grind that we simply go through the motions of, in order to hopefully get some sleep to wake and do it all over again tomorrow.
If one stops to ponder for just a moment the reasons why we are doing all this, it is so easy to rattle off a series of explanations which our ear has become so attuned to hearing; ’That’s simply how it is’; ‘I do it for my loved ones’; ‘I have no choice’; ‘That’s what’s expected’; ‘I need the money‘; ‘I have a mortgage!’; ‘We need to eat!’… The excuses are numerous. But how often do any of us ever take pause and stop and think, ‘What am I actually doing all this for?’
What is our function in our life? What does it serve? Whom does it serve? Our daily grind ensures we are ever swamped in the quagmire of monotonous repetition of both thought and action, making it nigh on impossible to actually give thought to that which we wish to do; rather than that which we feel we must do; let alone, to do it!
Of course, the world would surely fall apart if we each of us decided to actually do that which we have a burning passion in our hearts to do, rather than that which we can muster up the energy for under the commands of another. The planet would cease it’s rotation if we each of us dared to actually live a life we considered worth living or undertook to do even just one thing every day that we love to do, instead of living our automated grind. Imagine the consequences if every individual who is living their life hanging on the string of another’s demanding existence suddenly reached for the scissors and simply said ’Bugger off, I have a life to live!’, and began to embrace that life, even in little ways.
Such a terrible domino of events would ensue as the money train we are on and ever keeping fueled for someone else comes to a grinding, screeching halt. The money spinners which maintain each of us in our rightful place, as they perceive we should be, for their own ends; whilst at the same time convincing us in the form of a generally inadequate pay packet, that they are doing us a favour, would have to prove their own worth and independent capabilities as those daily, petty problems which have become our life’s mission to fix and maintain in order that these same people may live a comfortable life of very great fortune at the expense of our own; would begin to fade into insignificance. Oh – that would be a very bad thing for us all – wouldn’t it!
Or would it?
Tell me dear readers, what do you think?
Lady Opine.
All Content (c.) 2010.
