12d • General discussion
Perspective
Eisenhower woke each morning,
with the weight of continents balanced between his shoulder blades
The invasion of Normandy,
successfully liberating Western Europe from the Germans
had 130,000 casualties 29,000 killed
Maps spread b4 him like morgues
Laid out in neat little rectangles
Every arrow a vein
Every arrow a prediction of blood
Every circle a pulse
Every landing zone a pre dug grave
Every decision a door way
thru which 1000’s no 10’s of 1000’s,
not metaphorically literally would live or not live depending on the angle of his breathe,
the smallest twitch of his judgement
Men waited for his signature
The way prisoners wait for a final verdict
10 thousands more waited in silence
For him to decide which direction death would travel
Win or lose his decisions either way held death
The weight of the world roared like thunder
He lived with ghosts b4 they were dead
Each day knowing his choices would carve names in stone
Ike sat in rooms where the air could not breathe
Life, the world, gave him no time it handed him ultimatums
Choices, futures that dangled like meat over a pit
Waiting for his knife to choose the direction of suffering
(who would be eaten digested turned into mud never to be seen again)
He made decisions over a trembling world
No applause
No self pity
Simple grim arithmetic of leadership
Written, felt, across his spine
He bore the world and it pushed back
The weight of history crouched in a corner
Quiet and hungry watching what he’d choose
He wasn’t surrounded by an army he was surrounded by corpses
Uniforms stitched from futures that might not exist
Loneliness was not a feeling, it was the architecture of the job
A throne carved in dread
A kingdom of men to be sacrificed
The world pressed a cold mouth to the back of his neck
It whispered every choice he had to choose
Surrounded by generals - he stood completely alone
None to offer input on the casualties to create
Every one stands and stares pretends the room is not vibrating with existential despair
Meanwhile, cut to us -
we are lamenting -
our coffee isn’t made exactly to our specification
Someone took our parking space - our Wifi is slow
Making Greek tragedies out of parking tickets
Turning tiny crossroads into major thoroughfares
Where we star as the most burdened alive
Here we are
Spoiled trembling inflated dolls
Crying over inconveniences so microscopic they wouldn’t even register
on the edge of Ike’s night terrors
Look at us obsessed, enthralled, enveloped with…
did someone like/dislike our post
We are wiped out from a “hard day”
As if the universe is watching
As if anything/one cares which petty discomfort bruised our soft overfed egos
Modern disasters, 1st world problems
Door dash didn’t get our order right, forgot the extra sauce
Filing “emotional hardship claims”
Because our Zumba class was canceled
How dare they - we planned on that
Johnny didn't call you when you decided he should have
We strut around like grandiose little gods
crying over decisions
So small they’d fit on the corner of the tip of sewing needle
Barely a fly that landed momentarily on the corner of one of Ike’s maps
A decision that in his world would never been known to be there
We are overwhelmed by our lives
Decisions that barely influence our lives
We claim suffering due to a bit of wait time anywhere -
Late airplanes, late any form of travel,
never with gratitude for these wonders of modern travel
Perform our tiny pains as if they were of Shakespearean tragedy proportions
Claiming the spotlight for our self important melodramas
Inflate our anxieties into epic struggles
Cast ourselves into protagonists in cosmic dramas
That the cosmos doesn't even acknowledge exists
We call ourselves overwhelmed
Like the world is taking notes
The world is not only not paying attention
It’s out back having a cigarette
Perspective is a cold wind
Honest, our struggles matter sure
They simply are not Normandy
They are not the fate of nations
They are not the midnight weight that kept Ike awake
As the world's future twitched under his fingertips
Perspective is a razor hold it wrong it will slice you open
Hold it right you will see your decisions are like raindrops
Noisy fleeting gone
His were storms, swallowed ships, drowned sons, broken mothers
Perspective isn’t a lesson, it is a void, a reminder
That some men carried decisions that ripped open nations
While we tremble at the weight of our own invented significance
Eisenhower made choices that shaped the century
Our choices barely shape the next 10 minutes
time is indifferent and we dramatize ourselves as if time might blink in our direction
We are wimpy babies, grandiose, inflating our micro problems like sad little marionettes’s
Often controlled by everything else anyway
Our decisions are not cosmic events
Spoiler they are not cosmic
They are not events
They are barely relevant decisions
Perspective is a cold slap, with a hint of humor
Ike was one man at 1 point in history
His life required perspective of The World
Our
Perspective is barely honest regarding our own lives
we can’t choose a toothpaste without googling “top 10 whitening" formulas ranked by experts”
As if our decisions are heavy
We call it stress
Breathe stand up straight
Remember the size of giants who made choices so huge the earth still echos
& maybe just maybe stop pretending our tiny storms our hurricanes
Next time you crumble under your own exaggerated reality
Remember the man who sat in silence
And choose all those that would never see morning
Ask yourself
Really
How impactful is your life
Or is it just your/my ego
That's crushing us?
We think we are world shapers
We are world complainers
We are sinking in our own reflections convinced our choices matter on some vast scale
When we are barely the smudge on the lens
So when you feel overwhelmed
Ask yourself, is it pressure?
Or is it the echoing truth that you are small?
Your burdens are small?
Your storms are small”
You have mistaken the size of your feelings for the size of your life?
The next time insurmountable bits of your life are looming
Remember your not carrying the fate of nations
Your carrying the emotional weight of
a very dramatic hamster in your brain that needs to calm the hell down
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Perspective
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