Let’s pretend, just pretend, that on the day xx/xx/xxxx the world will end, a great change will bring about the death of everyone, absolutely everyone alive will die, nobody will be left alive.
Let’s pretend, just pretend and think with whom we would like to spend this last day, what clothes we would wear, what useful or important thing we would like to have in our hands or just with us.
Let’s think what we would do from now on while we await this day, what attitude we would have towards others, what we could not wait to say to our loved ones and what we would expect from those around us, knowing that they are also aware that the world is ending on xx/xx/xxxx.
Let’s pretend and enjoy the knowledge that on that day our pains and illnesses will end, we won’t have to take our daily medication; no more diets, no more growing old.
Let’s pretend and laugh, because on that day the bankers and those who run this world will no longer be able to extort anyone. All their perversities and manipulation of people and nations will be over. Foreign debts that weigh so heavily on common folk will disappear and at the same time countries, their wars, hates and conflicts will have ended.
Let’s pretend and laugh, because on that day leaders, politicians, the powerful, ambitious businessmen, the greedy who keep what belongs to others, those who refused to share and those who hoarded wealth, will be left empty handed and everything they have accumulated will be useless. Title, rank and “who” you are, will be no more.
Let’s pretend, just pretend that on xx/xx/xxxx the world will end and not to look only at the human wretchedness of “important people” but look also on our own poverty, our own meanness, hates and faults.
But let’s really play this game knowing that perhaps, just perhaps, on that day nothing will have ended, but perhaps, by pretending, just like when we were children, we will have changed for the better and that the world around us encircles us differently.
Let’s play the game and believe that before xx/xx/xxxx we can change our attitudes towards others and begin to put love into practice, putting others before us.
Let’s play at giving less importance to material things, let go, give away, throw away all those material possessions that this consumer and manipulative society made us buy and which made us believe are necessary to be happy, up to date, developed and have a better “quality of life”.
Let’s play at changing our priorities, let’s act as if each gesture we make to those around us will be the last and that is how we will be remembered, as if each encounter with others will be our last opportunity to say something important, courteous or loving.
Let’s pretend and dream that on the xx/xx/xxxx the world will be more just, because people will have set aside all future ambition, all mean self-interest, every calculating attitude.
If that day xx/xx/xxxx the world would be re-populated with upright human beings, I’m sure we would have another chance.
Let’s pretend, just pretend, because perhaps the day after xx/xx/xxxx the sun will rise as it does every day, but this game will have been an opportunity for change, for the world and for us.
Walter Gaydou
Marbella, some day before xx/xx/xxxx
*Written in January 2018*
