We forgot to live.
On a oublie de vivre
I. The Parlour
The phone rings.
I have to walk to the entrance to pick up the handset.
You forgot.
The curled wire that kept the phone in its place.
The zealous leash that kept this zealous servant in its place.
The small table in the entrance was its reserved space.
The rest of the space was mine;
Me.
This was the parlour, where you talked to friends until your ear got inflamed.
II. The Escape
It escaped its leash.
Now, it has eaten it.
It’s everywhere — even on the white throne.
First thing in the morning,
Last thing at night.
III. The Great Alone
Desperate solitude, waiting for a call.
Desperate for real connection.
Desperate for real society.
In the era of everything connected,
We are alone.
Alone with a phone, waiting for a tone.
We don’t even know our phone number anymore.
We are never really anywhere,
Because our phone pulls us out of place everywhere.
Our 3D universe was flattened, smashed.
We destroyed our perception of reality.
We forgot to live.
Spirit, encounters, boredom, killing time —
Space was crushed by the zealous servant.
IV. The Empty Community
We forgot that community is when we meet each other.
Now we just message one another.
But we no longer share ourselves with each other.
No more surprise, no more tension of the unknown.
Our world is impoverished and empty.
Everybody is gone, like zombies remote-controlled by invisible wires.
The only authentic connection is when we trip over each other,
Then maybe look one another in the eyes and exchange two real words:
“I’m sorry.”
Even in the subway,
Everything is empty.
People glued to their phones, blind to each other.
They are like somnambulists walking in their dreams.
V. The Prison and the Sage
Our phone is a prison — a cell for our mind.
We traded society for loneliness.
Mass loneliness, like mass casualties of the soul.
One old sage said:
“You know that hell is there when you no longer see any paths between houses.”
VI. Life by Proxy
We no longer play.
We no longer live our lives.
Our time is stolen.
We just live by proxy.
Spectators from our invisible cells.
We watch through our screens like prisoners.
We watch others live for us.
We no longer play — we watch others play on TV.
We no longer make love — we watch others make love.
We no longer talk — we listen to others talk in podcasts.
We no longer sing together.
We no longer dance together.
Think together.
Make a fire together and tell stories while looking at the infinity of stars.
We can’t even see the stars anymore in our perpetually light-blinded cities.
Night is not night,
Day is not day.
There’s even a rule for the length of the leash for your dog — they decided that 1.85 meters is the maximum admissible.
VII. The Mechanical Neighbor
We created robots to liberate us, to be together.
Instead, we turned ourselves into robots too.
Our world is a meaningless mechanical nightmare.
We lost the courage to simply knock on a door unannounced,
To say: “Hi neighbor, do you have an onion?”
That sounds like poetry to my ears now.
We no longer know our neighbors.
This world has become a giant desert.
Man is absent, engulfed in distractions.
Gone.
Each one is like a deaf and blind man, with his little screen.
VIII. The New Wall
We unplugged the leash from the wall and tied it to our neck.
The small table and the phone, docile and attached to the wall, were enough.
Inevitably, we have all become walls.
IX. The Straitjacket
We send messages while living in the same home,
Living in the same room,
Sleeping in the same bed,
Sending an SMS saying “good night.”
No longer listening to the pulse of life.
Feeling spaces and forms,
Touching objects,
Filling rooms,
Discovering textures and new streets, counting the bricks on the walls.
No more unknown smells.
Our universe is white and clinical, like a psychiatric ward —
and our straitjacket is our phone, which keeps us prisoners.
We are no longer even capable of leaving home without our leash.
We dread experiencing something real.
What if something happens?
X. The Epitaph
We’re fucked up.
Finished.
We have abandoned reality.
Libraries are empty,
Benches in front of houses are empty,
Streets are empty.
We forgot how to live.
We forgot how to be together.
We forgot that life is better lived together.
We forgot that love arises between hearts that meet together,
Beat together,
Crush their bones together,
Waltzing together,
Wondering in intimacy,
The thrilling of the unknown,
Humanness,
All together.
We are everywhere and nowhere.
We say: “The man blesses the place.”
But there is no more man.
There is no more place.
We forgot how to live.
We forgot ourselves.
We forgot how it feels
To be human.
We forgot to live.
people without moral autonomy, there are the fools, but also the devils, the fool has a chance because he doesn't know he is a fool until he knows, then fight for it...the devil is no fool but he cannot take it back as he abandoned hope.