OldSoul.blog

I love writing.  But I haven’t written much lately.  It could tell you it’s because I have been busy with other things, distracted by the ‘stuff’ of life.  That’s true, and it would be a legitimate excuse if one is at all necessary. But it wouldn’t be the truth.  The truth is that I have been grappling with a rather deep existential question: What’s the point?

Of course, I didn’t identify it as such immediately.  Rather it presented as a lack of motivation, born of a sort of weariness with the world as it is: its endless conflicts, its unspeakable tragedies, its shallow politics, its imbalanced economies, etc.  And it evinced a frustration that despite the many, many people of goodwill in the world, and an enormous reserve of positive thought and action, it just doesn’t seem to make a difference.  So, what’s the point?

I felt an uncharacteristic cynicism emerging and I wasn’t sure how to process it. 

Then, last week, while catching up on some reading I came across a piece from Nick Cave that I had bookmarked back in April 2022.  I can’t recall if I had read it back then – perhaps I saved it just so I could read it now!  I want to reprint it here so you can read it too, because I couldn’t do justice to Cave’s writing by merely telling you about it … …

“Dear Valerio, You are right to be worried about your growing feelings of cynicism and you need to take action to protect yourself and those around you, especially your child. Cynicism is not a neutral position — and although it asks almost nothing of us, it is highly infectious and unbelievably destructive. In my view, it is the most common and easy of evils.

I know this because much of my early life was spent holding the world and the people in it in contempt. It was a position both seductive and indulgent. The truth is, I was young and had no idea what was coming down the line. I lacked the knowledge, the foresight, the self-awareness. I just didn’t know. It took a devastation to teach me the preciousness of life and the essential goodness of people. It took a devastation to reveal the precariousness of the world, of its very soul, to understand that it was crying out for help. It took a devastation to understand the idea of mortal value, and it took a devastation to find hope.

Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.”

[Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files #190 / April 2022]

I think I might start writing again.  Because it matters!  Not just my writing, but your writing, our writing.  And our reading, and our singing, and our playing with children, and our laughing with friends, and our walking the dog, and our smiling at neighbours, and our delight in the sunset, and our appreciation of the garden, and our hugging of family and loved ones, and our yearning for a better world … … it all matters!

So let’s all keep doing it.

David Brooker [7^th October 2024]