The Reality We Live In: An Unknown Place

February 15, 2024

By Eduardo N. Cordovi Hernndez

HAVANA TIMES – Once I heard a story about two little fish who suddenly find themselves in the middle of the ocean. One asks the other: “Please, I’m looking for the ocean, can you tell me where to find it?” Unbelievable! But it happens normally in our existence as well.

We are immersed in a dreadful reality. We do not perceive it because we are busy with other matters that have made us believe they are the landscape of Eden. But they are the gateway to hell.

An immediate example now, in Havana or in another corner of Cuba, common topics are the high prices of anything, the scarcity of the essentials, the inconveniences to work, the difficulties of public transportation, the dangers of getting sick from eating insufficiently, pharmacies without medicines and hospitals deteriorated and/or without supplies, the increase in thefts, assaults, building collapses… and, to top it off, the news of the wars in Ukraine, in Gaza… extending to Yemen, to Iran, global economic crises, and climatological disasters, all a Lovecraftian poem… all shaping a habitat, an earthly atmosphere fueled by antagonistic socio-cultural, politico-economic, politico-social, socio-economic tensions… and again, in short.

I want to talk about another horror more hidden, close, and worse, for being more dangerous for being present with a charming disguise.

It is about our ideas about love, promoted by culture, mass media, press, TV, radio, cinematography, and, previously, the arts, with exceptions, of course!

I am talking about ideas that try to exalt, praise, laud, etc., healthy, human, dignified, genuine values, and another etcetera… but fail because, in those other ideas, there are postulates inoculated like viruses in the minds and that come in an accidental form, let’s say, in the lyrics of romantic songs or in the lyrical poetry of the same theme.

Here are some phrases, expressions, ideas, that constitute paradigms that contribute to fostering discomfort and pathological states, as if they were the best in the world. Ideas like: you are my life, you are my heaven, I can’t live without you, I can’t forget you, I can’t stop thinking about you, I can’t be happy, make me happy, I’m going to make you happy, don’t leave me, come back please, you are my happiness, you are all I need…

Many don’t even realize the danger of such repeated phrases. Even more so when they are sung in beautiful melodies, reinforced with the talent of a captivating voice and a top-notch stage expressiveness. Even more so when the singer is endorsed by fame, their presence in the media, and not to mention a growing bank account. That’s why, knowing that I may come across as arrogant, I venture to detail a couple of ideas.

“You are my life, you are my heaven.” Words have energy and transmit it to us when one receives them. Moreover, if we receive them in an emotional state, be it anger or sadness, enhanced by a few drinks of alcohol or other substances or impressions like a critical social atmosphere, poverty, etc. People perceive them without analyzing them and even knowing that they are verbal acrobatics to say delicate, beautiful, heartfelt things, what they receive and recognize in their mind is that the other person of their attention, “is their life” – the person listening to the song or the poem -. Or they think that, since the sky is so big because their love is so big, so if they lose it, if the other person no longer wants it, life no longer makes sense. We all know that hospitals, police stations, and penitentiaries all over the world receive dozens of cases related to this story every day.

No one is your life, nor your heaven, don’t make your life so poor or your heaven so small.

“… I can’t live without you.”

Imagine that your son or daughter says that they can’t live without that other person who is their partner. That they no longer want to continue living because that person does not want to establish or continue such a relationship. Does it still seem to you that this love is wonderful? Does it seem normal to you that they cannot live without that other person they met recently and already want to commit suicide because they are left or because they do not want to get involved in a relationship?

Let me tell you more. Do you think it’s a great love for another person to fall in love with your son or daughter, thinking that they can’t live without one of them? Do you know how many people have decided to kill another because killing themselves is not enough for them? However, people sing these songs at family parties on birthdays, on Valentine’s Day, on wedding anniversaries… in front of their children, and nephews, in front of the children of their friends and no one is horrified! But long live love!

Is that the kind of love you want your children and your grandchildren to enjoy? Let’s see! Who says: me? then we all gather here in a corner and take a picture, while we shout: Long live love!