Here’s something from a collection I call “Leary’s Laws.”
“Things are always going to get worse, and we just have to take what friggin’ solace we can from that. What it means, we’re always living in a golden age, at least looking back from any time in the future.”
(Leary, in Yawn: A Thriller, by Collin Piprell)
So go ahead and take what solace you can from that. You might also want to stock up on canned goods, water, candles and batteries.
For sure if you’re living in the Rajaprasong area of Bangkok just now you’ll want to do that. Wanting to encourage the Red Shirt encampment to pack up and leave, the government was promising to call off power, water and transport to that part of the city any minute, but that would have inconvenienced far too many, and perhaps too influential, other people trying to live and work in the neighorhood. So now they’re closing roads into the area and moving a fleet of armored personnel carriers down from upcountry.
It doesn’t bode well, no matter how much of a golden age it is we’re living in.
This is not the golden age, it is the Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, where things start off bad and get worser and worser. Just ask the good people of Louisiana. First they get Hurricane Katrina and then the oil spill. Next thing they know, Louisiana will turn into a giant sinkhole, and they’ll all be sucked into the bowels of hell.
I go with Leary. Since we know things are always going to get worse, we’re *always* living in a golden age, at least looking back from any time in the future. It’s only if you try living in the future that things start to look so grim. Thus mindful living–what’s past is past, and the future ain’t, at least not yet. So enjoy the now.
Psyches ‘R’ Us. And that’ll be 20 baht, please.