Nonfiction
Grains and Grapes
In an ocean of sensations, we are trapped in the Freedom of the seasons.
After a tiring day at work, there was nothing more than calluses on my soft hands. You loved them, kissing them because you knew that from them would come the wheat for our bread, and the grapes for our wine.
Have you ever asked yourself why you cannot stand still with your feelings the way they are? It seems as though something is off and is not right. In a monoculture, only one crop is produced during the whole year. When stuck in the same old patterns, we have the same fate as the monoculture. Our soils eventually break down, and pesticides and chemicals are consequently needed. But why do we need a monoculture in the first place?
After my third year at university, I still do not know what life wants from me and what I should give her back. I am trapped in this cycle of producing value and being happy. Or at least pretending to be happy enough so that others trust me to produce value for them. But if education is the water with which we irrigate the seed, how are we certain that the plant will flourish if the soil is already depleted? To flourish, we also need several amino acids, minerals, and vitamins that are not provided by one single plant or organism. The resistance of success demands the surrender to diversity.
Positivity is a growth factor for plants – widely overused as a chemical in monoculture crops. It is sold to us as a groundbreaker for a copious harvest, but what we produce is chronic sadness and alienation. Depression and anxiety are the co-results of an industrial revolution that successfully produced its own reserve army of labor. Pills and diagnostics are the solution to our despair. Brand-new psychiatric and cognitive impairments tag us because we were unable to fight a war that was not ours in the beginning. We could not fit in. It may seem contradictory that happiness is the norm and sadness is the result. But in this logic, nothing is by chance. Monoculture is profitable, resultful, and impactful. But monoculture does not rest. It does not question its existence. It does not allow bugs. It takes chemicals and keeps working soullessly. Until one day, the soil that sustains it can not hold it anymore. It is dead if it already wasn’t before.
Byung-Chul Han has already made it clear we are a performance-obsessed society. The discipline was replaced by positivity. Unhappiness is not allowed; otherwise, you become in need of urgent treatment. The categorical imperative is replaced by the order imperative. We became foremen and henchmen of our subjectivity, producing and consuming in a never-ending pattern. We have solutions for problems yet to exist.
There is non-stop information, content, and distractions everywhere. Our attention is broken, torn apart. Multitasking is the way. Resting is for the weak, and no weak are allowed. In the end, emotions are not truly experienced, but an existential void is created to obviate confronting our mind. Sadness is guilt, and joy is insufficient. Prevented from embracing negativity, we are left with chronic despair and misery. Reality is distorted and the indulgence of having a manifold variety of feelings is bypassed. In the sea of our lives, our waves are being prevented from destroying the rocks that contain us. We can only harvest sweet fruits from the bitterness of the growth.
One needs courage to live. Farmers’ resilience creates a polyculture. We can still survive this dangerous race for value if, instead of running against time, we walk alongside it. Instead of producing non-stop, we inquire for more quality time with friends, family, and ourselves. Observing any ecosystem, we see diverse species intertwined with each other. In the milpa – or three-sisters –, corn, squash, and beans are grown together. Learning from nature, Mesoamerican pre-Colombians saw that this combination yields more than when planted separately. The corn provided support for beans, squash covered the soil and the beans’ bacteria fixated nitrogen that helped everyone in its interconnected root system. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergic behavior can be seen everywhere, from the altruistic, reciprocal, and interdependent, to the mutualist of our connections. However, we easily forget how to do so. Not because of our nature but our condition. Then we need to remember that a good harvest requires sharing space, soil, and resources. I do not want to survive, but I want to live. Life with dignity. Their greed is the cause of their death and forgetfulness.
One day I will realize my roots need to be deep, but not so deep, so there is space for others to coexist. The care of my neighbors is sufficient for me to thrive, so I make sure to in turn care for them. And only then can we knead our bread and ferment our wine in our ancestors’ land.
After a tiring day at work, there was nothing more than calluses on my soft hands. You loved them, kissing them because you knew that from them would come the wheat for our bread, and the grapes for our wine.
Have you ever asked yourself why you cannot stand still with your feelings the way they are? It seems as though something is off and is not right. In a monoculture, only one crop is produced during the whole year. When stuck in the same old patterns, we have the same fate as the monoculture. Our soils eventually break down, and pesticides and chemicals are consequently needed. But why do we need a monoculture in the first place?
After my third year at university, I still do not know what life wants from me and what I should give her back. I am trapped in this cycle of producing value and being happy. Or at least pretending to be happy enough so that others trust me to produce value for them. But if education is the water with which we irrigate the seed, how are we certain that the plant will flourish if the soil is already depleted? To flourish, we also need several amino acids, minerals, and vitamins that are not provided by one single plant or organism. The resistance of success demands the surrender to diversity.
Positivity is a growth factor for plants – widely overused as a chemical in monoculture crops. It is sold to us as a groundbreaker for a copious harvest, but what we produce is chronic sadness and alienation. Depression and anxiety are the co-results of an industrial revolution that successfully produced its own reserve army of labor. Pills and diagnostics are the solution to our despair. Brand-new psychiatric and cognitive impairments tag us because we were unable to fight a war that was not ours in the beginning. We could not fit in. It may seem contradictory that happiness is the norm and sadness is the result. But in this logic, nothing is by chance. Monoculture is profitable, resultful, and impactful. But monoculture does not rest. It does not question its existence. It does not allow bugs. It takes chemicals and keeps working soullessly. Until one day, the soil that sustains it can not hold it anymore. It is dead if it already wasn’t before.
Byung-Chul Han has already made it clear we are a performance-obsessed society. The discipline was replaced by positivity. Unhappiness is not allowed; otherwise, you become in need of urgent treatment. The categorical imperative is replaced by the order imperative. We became foremen and henchmen of our subjectivity, producing and consuming in a never-ending pattern. We have solutions for problems yet to exist.
There is non-stop information, content, and distractions everywhere. Our attention is broken, torn apart. Multitasking is the way. Resting is for the weak, and no weak are allowed. In the end, emotions are not truly experienced, but an existential void is created to obviate confronting our mind. Sadness is guilt, and joy is insufficient. Prevented from embracing negativity, we are left with chronic despair and misery. Reality is distorted and the indulgence of having a manifold variety of feelings is bypassed. In the sea of our lives, our waves are being prevented from destroying the rocks that contain us. We can only harvest sweet fruits from the bitterness of the growth.
One needs courage to live. Farmers’ resilience creates a polyculture. We can still survive this dangerous race for value if, instead of running against time, we walk alongside it. Instead of producing non-stop, we inquire for more quality time with friends, family, and ourselves. Observing any ecosystem, we see diverse species intertwined with each other. In the milpa – or three-sisters –, corn, squash, and beans are grown together. Learning from nature, Mesoamerican pre-Colombians saw that this combination yields more than when planted separately. The corn provided support for beans, squash covered the soil and the beans’ bacteria fixated nitrogen that helped everyone in its interconnected root system. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergic behavior can be seen everywhere, from the altruistic, reciprocal, and interdependent, to the mutualist of our connections. However, we easily forget how to do so. Not because of our nature but our condition. Then we need to remember that a good harvest requires sharing space, soil, and resources. I do not want to survive, but I want to live. Life with dignity. Their greed is the cause of their death and forgetfulness.
One day I will realize my roots need to be deep, but not so deep, so there is space for others to coexist. The care of my neighbors is sufficient for me to thrive, so I make sure to in turn care for them. And only then can we knead our bread and ferment our wine in our ancestors’ land.