A child, young enough to be a great
grand daughter to the old man, tells him a story about how a chicken
makes a “po” sound. The old man sits confused as this is the
most perplexing thing he has heard. “No, child, chickens make a
'cluck' noise.”
Noticeably upset, the child gets
louder, as though the loudness will make the old man change his
perception. It doesn't. The old man, worn from old age yet still
defiantly stubborn, refuses to raise his voice as much as he refuses
to change his mind.
The argument continues on like this for
quite some time – the child now red in the face and flustered as
she continues to convince the old man as to how wrong he is. The old
man, having lived a great deal longer than the child, also knows her
to be wrong, but as he tries to explain to the child that it is
simply a matter of geographical understanding that has led each of
them to the different perspectives the child interrupts with the
explanation of just how wrong he is.
The old man attempts to change the
subject now. Perhaps music would be a more appropriate topic, he
thinks. Of course, the child has opposition to this as well. See,
she is hip on all the modern music and the old man, well, his prime
was decades ago. He couldn't possibly understand what constitutes as
musical today.
He tries to explain to her how sounds
have textures, how they create emotion with the various depths in
which the instruments get played, yet modern music has little of
this. Timbre, he calls it while describing what it is. Of course,
the youth don't care. They know what sounds pleasant to their ears
without the critiquing aspect. In a way, the old man is jealous at
the simplicity of the little girl's life, yet he knows that
eventually she is going to have to grow up and face the harshness of
reality. Teaching her depth about the pleasurable things in life is
just his way of trying to prepare her for the world to come - to look
at things from a deeper perspective without suffering consequences in
the process.
Then the child plays the old man a song
– some new song that has a diabolically simple bass line with a few
blip noises to hold time. She dances like a mad man as the old man
sits back wondering what it is she is dancing to. It makes no sense
to him as there is no rhythm to dance to, but he lets it happen
anyway. He has gotten to that point where he understands resistance
is futile and trying to understand her is worthless. Being perplexed
stays, though.
He has to ask anyway, “what do you
like about this music?” The old man asks in a very sincere,
non-offensive way.
“I just like it. I don't have to
know why,” the girl answers quickly.
The admiration of the simplicity fades
into an annoyance, yet remains enough for him to still wish he could
be so simple.
That, however, is when politics enters
into his mind. Remembering the past, having watched so much happen
that has led to the point they are at today – socially,
economically, politically. The simplicity in ignorance is what has
led to such a catastrophic state. The unemployment numbers may be
down, but the average income is extraordinarily low compared to the
cost of living. Slavery may have ended, but it has arguably changed
to prison labor instead. Political parties work their damnedest to
divide a country while neither side is working to benefit the society
as a whole. This is the world this girl will have to face and the
old man fears that if she can't even understand that her admiration
for the song is nothing more than because of how familiar it is then
how will she ever have enough comprehension to know that every action
is equal parts good and bad – how will she know that the
politicians she votes for, if she even votes, are going to use her
lack of understanding to ensure they get her support?
The old man has lived too long, he
feels, as he sees now that he is alone in paying attention. The rest
of the world is like this small child – trying desperately hard to
enjoy things as superficially as possible, and finding hope in the
promises of those who would manipulate them for their own personal
gains and the gains of those they support.
Teaching someone of any age to care is
difficult, but a child? That is downright impossible when they feel
they know better. Of course, the old man knows he can't live
forever. He just wishes better for the future.
-Dustin S. Stover
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