Taking it easy
This is an excerpt from my journal.
A few people have sent me a message asking how I am doing given the crisis in the Middle East. Cyprus is providing strategic depth to the Western forces. The military bases of the United Kingdom in Cyprus are assets of the war effort and, thus, prime targets for an attack. The rest of the island is not directly involved in the conflict, though it could be caught in the crossfires. The future is uncertain and we hope for the best.
I keep living my life as usual. When I have work on the computer, I am online. Otherwise, I am outdoors doing manual labour or hiking with my dogs. The place is quiet here and nothing happens beside what I just described. If I was not reading the news, I would not even know what is happening in the wider region.
Knowledge of the war does not change my outlook though. I stick to my routines because (i) I am content with them and (ii) I have no viable alternative. Worrying about all the possible vectors of attack does not change my material conditions. I have no means to enact reforms. My power to even change the opinion of one person is limited, let alone any attempt at stopping the military juggernauts of Iran, Israel, USA, and friends.
I am a peasant. Having access to the Internet does not change this fact. I mind my business in my small plot of land. My ambition only goes as far as growing vegetables for this season, while taking care of all the trees I have planted until they are strong enough to not rely on my care. In my little world, there is no calculus over how to control anybody else.
What I do here is inconsequential. If I were to stop doing it, nobody would even notice. The world will carry on. I like this state of affairs. I do not feel any pressure to live up to a certain standard nor to care about people whose lives I do not have under my aegis. The stakes are low, which makes me feel relaxed.
I do not think I am special or particularly good at anything. Anything I do, someone does it better. Everything I have ever achieved, someone has reached a greater height. All I have to show for is honest effort. It is cute, but nothing extraordinary.
I do not assign disproportionate value to myself of the sort “what will happen to others if I am gone?”. Others have to manage, anyway, so they will keep doing what they do. My dogs are the ones who would struggle, though I can only hope that their calm demeanour and the good manners I have taught them will allow them to find food in some built-up area. Beside that, I see no problem or, anyhow, nothing to worry about.
This morning I spent three hours working the land. Every part here embeds my efforts. I like that my sweat drops on the ground. It makes it feel real. I know that even though I am but a visitor in this world, I have for once made a connection with a place.
I never felt attached to a country or a community. Yes, I have had many friends and was always treated with kindness, but I could not ever claim to feel a part of something greater than me. My land gives me a different feeling. It is as if I am growing roots here. Like the oak trees, I affect my immediate environment, though not to dominate but to direct it with respect as well as with determination.
Nominally, I am Greek, Cypriot, European. What do those even mean? I have not been to Greece in two decades. I have spent more time abroad than in my birthplace. Whatever I take from the Greek tradition is available to anyone and not exclusive to individuals of a certain bloodline. Being European is a figment of law and then the imagination. I do not treat people of Europe any different than those of other continents. If someone wants to talk with me, I am happy to talk with them. Where they are from is irrelevant. As for the Cypriot part, it is mostly a description of the fact that I am collocated with a certain group of people. They are nice to me and I treat them with respect, though I still do not see any deep bond there.
I know that my mode of living is uncommon even though it used to be the norm for millennia. That is fine. Each person does what their condition renders unavoidable. My land and these mountains bring me peace. Every morning I am ready to start the day with enthusiasm. I am in a good mood at all times, ready to make jokes where appropriate and get some hard work done. Nothing disappoints me because I am not committed to specific outcomes. I take what comes my way and work with it. What I am committed to are my projects, which I pursue for as long as I can or until they are done.
There is a future in which me and my land are no longer together. It is all part of the process. How proximate or remote that eventuality is does not matter. I remain in the here-and-now. This article shows my ongoing ability to maintain focus, to continue with what I am working on, and to proceed one step at a time. I know that this ability, no matter how much I refine it, is not permanent. My volition will never have the power to withdraw it from the world of impermanence, to render it immune to the workings of the cosmos, and to forever make it a part of a transcendent me.
Wars will keep happening. Not because humans in particular have frailties of character. No. That gives us too much value. Nature all around us exhibits the capacity for conflict among forms of live. What we do is an expression of what is immanent, from bacteria competing with each other, to plants fighting for a place in the sun, to predators that kill their competitors. Same principle for solidarity. We can cooperate, like other forms of life do. An equilibrium is always established. I do not worry.