Just Because - Sept 6 2025

 

Just Because

Sept 6 2025

I thought science would clear things up.

The rational minds

had all the answers

or would, soon enough.

But research just found more of them.

Unearthed complexity

dividing like a tree,

branch after branch

narrower and narrower;

and here I am

lost in the foliage.

The world is not only bigger

but so much smaller than we’d guessed.

Religion might have worked.

But faith is not for me;

I need to see, touch, smell

to believe,

hard evidence I can test 

and take or leave.

Philosophy 

sounds promising

so long as you don’t get tied up in knots,

manage not to dither

over every fine difference

and end up out-thinking yourself. 

Philosophers

  . . . too clever by half.

So I find myself 

as much perplexed by life

as I’ve always been.

My own, especially.

If my younger self 

had known what I know now

what would he have done with it?

I know now, after all;

but I’m also still him

and struggle just as much.

If I’d been a better fit

would what had been so baffling

have made more sense?

   . . . Just imagine, round into round

instead of jamming in squares.

So what chance did I have,

a jagged edge

made of brittle stuff?

If only people were easier

more predictable 

less opaque.

And if together

they behaved as they did by themselves

would we all be that much happier?

Because too often

it’s not the wisdom of crowds;

its the siren call of conformity,

the malignancy 

of social contagion.

But mostly, if those who run the world

were not among the worst

would my questions answer themselves?

Or if not exactly virtuous

could they at least be good?

Not like the leaders we’re stuck with;

the crabs in the bucket 

who clambered up the bodies

of the weak and the small,

the power seeking bullies

who bare-knuckle boxed

their way to the top.

They say the human mind

is the most complex thing in creation

and you have one all your own;

3 lbs

of firmly set jelly

jiggling around in your head.

There, in all its magnificence,

stooping to tie your shoes

wiping the snot from your nose.

But as I've said

contending with complexity is hard;

too smart

and you end up confounding yourself

with too many hard questions

  —  a Zen master

posing koans

even he’s unable to answer.

So perhaps ignorance is bliss; 

that the secret to happiness

is keeping it simple

and your world small.

There’s much to be said for acceptance;

why trouble yourself

with so many questions

unresolvable doubts?

Because it’s hard to love a toddler

who keeps asking why.

Best be satisfied 

with a simple because.