Try to look past the hate
“Hate is the longest pleasure: ‘we love in haste, but hate at our leisure.'”
I understand that statement might seem nonsensical, baffling, or merely cryptic? That dear allies and contemptible enemies, is specifically why I wrote it the way that I did. Before you rush to judgment and develop your respective interpretation, seriously think about it.
You see, to my surprise and the chagrin of people too numerous to mention, I have become an old man. I never expected to, so it really surprised the Hell outta me. The crew I used to ride with all thought I’d be the first to go. The consensus was that I was too reckless. I thought I was just daring.
I’m sure they thought about growing old, I never gave it a second thought. I lived for the moment and they planned for the future. The best laid plans of mice and men don’t always come to fruition. I know this is true, because out of my crew, I’m the last man standing.
We were a wild bunch. We did things they write books and make movies about. We made and frittered away fortunes. Embarking on capers, adventures too numerous to mention.
The statute of limitations has long since expired and those debts have all been paid in full.
But let me tell you about a phenomenon that I realized early in my youth that still holds true for all of us, today. As we all try to reach our respective horizons in life’s journey, it’s never closer than three miles away. I don’t care how fast or carefully you try to reach it, when it’s all said and done, that horizon will still be three miles away.
Maybe this is why greed is unquenchable? The more money you make, the more money you spend. The more things you have, the more things you want. The more places you’ve been, the more places you still want to see.
Beliefs are the same way, be they religious, or political. Some have even meshed the two together and that creates fanaticism. I would like to think our founding fathers considered this when they debated, argued, fought and even killed one another. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton just couldn’t see eye to eye and in their final confrontation, Burr was the last one standing. He wasn’t standing very long. Afterwards he spent a lot of time running away.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson weren’t all that crazy about each other either. For them, surely hate was their longest pleasure. As proof of my contention of this “pleasure” of theirs, they both died on July 4, 1826.
Thomas Jefferson died at Monticello, in Virginia. A French nobleman said he placed his house and mind “on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe.”
John Adams died on his farm in Massachusetts. Unbeknownst to Adams, Jefferson had died a few hours earlier that day. Yet hate was still Adams’ “longest pleasure” as he whispered his last frustrating words: “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
Neither did, but the hate survived.
I prefaced this commentary saying we “love in haste.” I’ve lost count of how many times I fell in love, but never figured out how to fall out of it. Oh, it’s easy to fall in and out of “like,” but love is a whole different story. It is for that reason alone, that I now limit using the word: love. I might say I’m “fond” of someone and have on occasions said I’ve fallen in “lust” with ladies, but I won’t hastily fall into something that I can’t as hastily fall out of.
Love’s a blessing. It’s about as good as it gets, but for me when it’s gone, it’s a curse! I remember all the mistakes I and even my co-conspirators in love have made. Some are so final as to almost close that chapter, but they never really do. We can all remember a time in any love when it just couldn’t get better. Like a ghost, that memory always comes back to haunt.
Right now our political discourse has imprisoned us in this “longest pleasure.” Not only are we stuck in our homes where we might be “all dressed up, with nowhere to go,” but we’ re also imprisoned by our fanaticisms. We wrack our brains with reasons and conspiracies, trying to figure out why.
I watch as the media’s “fake news” tells me who to blame, just like you do. I try to be logical with my opinion, just like you might with an opposite view. Then social media becomes “big fun” as the avenue where we can all spew our venom.
Recently, I was confronted by someone whose opinions I thought were pretty damned scary. After a lengthy debate, I discovered she wasn’t scary, but did create cause for concern.
I’ll save my venomous retorts for those who try to hurt my country, mine or me, while some cowardly hide in ambush behind a Facebook silhouette and/or alias.
Here I’ve decided to go beyond the witty one-liners. I hope you all dare to look into it.
“I’ve written a MIRROR!”
John Lucas is a resident of Vanderbilt.