Why We Must All Get A Little Darker

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1996

Abstract

how many races won, how many lessons learned? When you interview for a job you have to sound like you’re Lance Armstrong.</p><p id="e9de">I’m not saying there is not a place for joy and victory. I am not here to insult you. I am making a finer point. When we are so attached, obsessed, and addicted to light, like flame-bound moths, we dry up, or worse, become blind. And we make all of those millions of people who have good reason to feel down, depressed, angry, or hurt have to hide these natural human emotions, like flowers hiding their dark beautiful scent.</p><p id="9728">It is a sad sight seeing so much forced happiness. So much emphasis on strength and victory. It is like a world with all yang and no yin, or an Earth with all rock and no water. What would the world look like if it only featured two colors, say yellow and orange? Wouldn’t you start to miss the color green, blue, red, and purple?</p><p id="7f88">What sort of violent effort has it taken us all who have had to endure 9–5 in a corporate culture during an age of climate change, wars, and pandemics? Did our ancestors feel it necessary to smile 24/7 while they died of famine, malaria, war, and the Spanish Flu?</p><p id="7c05">Read poets like Rainer Maria Rilke, Sylvia Plath, Robinson Jeffers, Garcia Lorca, Langston Hughes, Fernando Pessoa, and Paul Celan. Where are their songs of victory? Their 10 steps to enlightenment? Their 100 tips to get rich? Their road to wellness?</p><p id="f48f">Instead, they shared the darkness and pain that was inside them. They let us know it is deeply human to be deeply hurting, and that we can share the pain. And we can open up about the ugliness and the failure of life, which is the other half of what makes beauty alive and whole.</p><figure id="6b6a"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*mUFMDOweB0bE_Tz8"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@laurachouette?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Laura Chouette</a> on <a hre

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f="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="fc06">© Carlo Zeno 2022</p><p id="78a9">_________________________________</p><p id="9905">I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you want to read more, see below.</p><div id="c326" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/facing-hades-with-dignity-97672c57a97b"> <div> <div> <h2>Facing Hades With Dignity</h2> <div><h3>A Poem on the Human Condition</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*pTSoCKPd-QLwNTdU)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="5b18" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-descent-93070b5293a6"> <div> <div> <h2>The Descent</h2> <div><h3>A poem on fate</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*P4dhmhLab8c_yWgl)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="013b" class="link-block"> <a href="https://carlozeno.medium.com/membership"> <div> <div> <h2>Join Medium with my referral link - Carlo Zeno</h2> <div><h3>As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…</h3></div> <div><p>carlozeno.medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*IY37AyHyQwPZNyGy)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Our collective shadow

There is a need for darker language. Poetry that doesn’t itch to see the light. Prose not in a hurry to shout Victory all of the time. We have been a little bit spoiled by the New Age.

Everyone is out to get rich, to transform, overcome obstacles, enlighten themselves, win the Olympics. Even Buddhism has been turned into a goal-oriented Squid Game of sorts.

Whatever happened to losing? Surrendering to defeat? Ironically, the New Age loves the word “surrendering” but has even turned this word into a sort of orgasm of Victory. “I gave in and surrendered. I am set free!”

But what about heartbreak, failure, melancholy, rage, humiliation? The muddy human experience we are all mired in. Is this not a fit subject for prose, let alone poetry?

I am not saying all of this to be provocative or contrarian. I honestly think there is value and use in sitting in the dark. Owning ugliness. Wearing stupidity. Are we all not just a little bit stupid?

I often wonder if one of the reasons we are living in a mental illness pandemic is because we have no place in ourselves or society for these more shadowy expressions of ourselves. Walk into any corporate work culture and you will find caffeinated positive attitudes on steroids.

A whole corporate vocabulary around heroic feats and achievements. Our culture just drips with it. How many trophies must I show on my resume? How many elephants must I say I killed, how many races won, how many lessons learned? When you interview for a job you have to sound like you’re Lance Armstrong.

I’m not saying there is not a place for joy and victory. I am not here to insult you. I am making a finer point. When we are so attached, obsessed, and addicted to light, like flame-bound moths, we dry up, or worse, become blind. And we make all of those millions of people who have good reason to feel down, depressed, angry, or hurt have to hide these natural human emotions, like flowers hiding their dark beautiful scent.

It is a sad sight seeing so much forced happiness. So much emphasis on strength and victory. It is like a world with all yang and no yin, or an Earth with all rock and no water. What would the world look like if it only featured two colors, say yellow and orange? Wouldn’t you start to miss the color green, blue, red, and purple?

What sort of violent effort has it taken us all who have had to endure 9–5 in a corporate culture during an age of climate change, wars, and pandemics? Did our ancestors feel it necessary to smile 24/7 while they died of famine, malaria, war, and the Spanish Flu?

Read poets like Rainer Maria Rilke, Sylvia Plath, Robinson Jeffers, Garcia Lorca, Langston Hughes, Fernando Pessoa, and Paul Celan. Where are their songs of victory? Their 10 steps to enlightenment? Their 100 tips to get rich? Their road to wellness?

Instead, they shared the darkness and pain that was inside them. They let us know it is deeply human to be deeply hurting, and that we can share the pain. And we can open up about the ugliness and the failure of life, which is the other half of what makes beauty alive and whole.

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I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you want to read more, see below.