Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language,
let's stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness...

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves
with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead in winter
and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

~ Pablo Neruda, "Keeping Quiet", Extravagaria, translated by Alastair Reid. I found it at Keeping Quiet@Everything2.com late on 18 March 2003.

I might add some profound comment later, but for now I think this poem speaks for itself (and my current feelings about the world) very well, and I wanted to remember it.

Wishing

Ok, so earlier today omega697 wrote somewhat sarcastically in his LiveJournal that he was going to wish for war, in the hopes that it would cause the people of the U.S. to "awaken" politically and in particular get out and vote. The entry is here, and it's clearly a reaction to the I wish for peace meme that started making the LiveJournal rounds yesterday. (The "add 'I wish for peace' to your LJ user interests" meme hasn't spread quite as quickly, but I digress.) He has since disallowed comments on the entry in question, but since I spent a long time this morning thinking about it in my (paper) journal, and later trying to edit the resultant five pages of not entirely related ramble into a well thought-out piece that fit in LJ's comment character limit, I'm going to post what I came up with here.

( Bad news: Wishing for war, for any reason, sends a hateful message. Better to promote awareness that lots of people in the U.S. don't want war. Neutral news: Speaking of awareness, here's some thoughts about the personal causes and nature of social and political consciousness. Good news: rockin' the vote. )

Ok, wow, that was huge (so huge, I learned to use cut tags on it!) But I did manage to make it considerably more coherent than this morning's paper journal entries, which is good. Looking at it now, I'm definitely glad I gave this piece its own entry, instead of trying to shoehorn it into omega697's journal. Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Kurt!