I was watching this TV show, The Expanse, on Amazon Prime, the other day.
It was this scene on top of a Baltimore sky-rise after a cataclysm had flooded it in a radical future that got me thinking. In it, Amos is trying to convince his former partner in crime to leave Earth behind and move his shady operations up there, among the stars of the Cosmos.
And one thing struck me very deep and hard.
One of the characters was talking about the necessity of moving on and how one must be able to pack up and start afresh at a moment’s notice.
To this, another character retorted how one never starts again but continues his journey in a different setting or locale.
And this prompted me to tell my wife that she had been wrong to tell, nay, badger me all our life together how she is too old to start afresh in a different country.
This is what I told her. I said,
“Honey, you are wrong to say that one is too old to start anew in another country, if this one we live in should ever go to the dogs. You are wrong, not epistemologically but ontologically. You are wrong because nobody starts afresh anything anyhow in this Life. Our Life is a journey. When you move to another locale, you continue what you’ve been doing, only in a different setting, and after you learn the new set of rules, laws, and language. You go through all this trouble so that you can keep on living according to your designs.”
Of course, my words rang hollow with her because even though she understood the sentiment, and recognized the logic behind it, she could not come to terms with the required level of effort and mental resources needed for the transition.
But before you dismiss my words as shallow, consider this.
There are people who have lived on 5 different continents, 20 years or a generation a pop. Some have made it to 100 years of age. Did they reinvent themselves 4 times? Yes, of course, they had to. Did they start afresh, from scratch, from tabula rasa? Not really.
In this example, the 20 year-old self benefited from his first Life experience, and by the time they decided to pull stakes and move camp to another horizon, they had amassed 40 years of knowledge and wherewithal under their belt. This allowed them to continue their Life on yet another level.
By the age of 60, buoyed by the 3 languages he spoke, the 3 countries he built a household, a patrimony, asset structure, you name it in, this man was not only ready to continue his journey. He was looking forward to its challenges and… inevitable rewards.
I was wrong to believe that sedentarism is a man’s friend. No, no, no.
One must become and move like water if one is to make it in this world of ours.
One must follow one’s destiny with assiduity by looking out for the best environment in which to forge their Path forward. For time is of the essence. And those who waste their Time, end up with nothing to show for it.
Our days on this Earth are numbered. The Fates grind slowly the allotted sand of our hourglasses but they do grind it surely.
And one day, They decide to cut the threads of our mortal coils. Just like that. And then there’s Nothing. Darkness. Emptiness. Vacuum replaces Brownian motion. And Futility replaces Meaning.
We must not squander this precious capital by hanging on to obsolete concepts such as patriotism, duty to serve one’s country, or anything that ties one’s fate to one’s land, like a dog is inexorably tied to a cart.
Remember, folks, your country would as soon send you to war in your late middle age if it served the purposes of the ruling class. They wouldn’t give two flying figs about your life.
So why would you anchor yourself stupidly to archaic concepts such as love of country when your country needs you for the fruit of your loins, the sweat of your brow, and the capacity of your brain, and when you’re done serving, they discard you like a squeezed lemon in the trash?!?
Why, why, why?
No, sir.
All my Life, I’ve been guided by one underlying principle:
UBI BENE IBI PATRIA!
Your home is where they treat you well!
Remember this and you will go far.
Götterdämmerung 