At the Risk of Sounding Pretentious - Feb 14 2024

 

At the Risk of Sounding Pretentious

Feb 14 2024

It was Sartre who said

Hell is other people.

I'm no philosopher.

Have never read his work.

And he said it in French,

so we may very well

have gotten it wrong.

Perhaps the cynical edge

of his dismissive scorn

is softened

by the language of love.

Does it sounds more elegant

in his native tongue,

some combination of

l'enfer

and les autres?

Still, there must be some truth to it

no matter how it's said.

After all, he's still referenced, read, respected

well past his death.

So when I, too, feel this way

I'm in good company;

it's as if the imprimatur

of the great man

excuses my misanthropy.

But I go even further,

giving the words

the jaded inflection

of a world-weary philosopher.

Imagine a rakish beret,

an unfiltered Galoises

held between

two fingers and a thumb.

And at the risk of sounding pretentious

I drop the “H”,

affect

the laboured accent

from my bad high school French.

You're fooling yourself

if you haven't felt this way as well,

at least from time to time.

Forgetting, of course, that we're also other people

and doubtless as annoying.

Especially when we have no choice

but to live together

on a small planet

that seems to get smaller by the day,

and where we depend

on the kindness of strangers

or at least their expertise.

Rough edges

rubbing up against

with nowhere else to go.

No choice, but other people. And no such thing as the self-made man.

Especially in a modern civilization of complexity, interdependence, and specialization, where self-sufficiency is a myth and bad things that start small rapidly cascade into disaster.

Especially on an increasingly congested planet where distances are shrinking and resources depleting.

Especially for someone like me, who prefers to be alone, craves peace and quiet.