20-02-2011 / Shared Stress

Shared Stress

(Aquí Yace Nuestro Stress De Cada Año = Here Lies Our Stress For Every Year)

Neither you nor I can take it anymore. Do you agree?

We've been carrying that heavy stone for far too long now.

Way too long.

It began as a pebble but now it can only be moved using a crane, like those used in construction sites.

And even so, I still have my doubts.

I have them because the stone is dense, it's cold, it's dark, it's abrasive, it's full of points and edges that hurt and full of holes where things are lost forever.

That pebble became an unmovable object.

Science still can't determine what happens when an unmovable object meets an unstoppable force.

I don't think we'll be the ones that will solve that question.

What I do know is that neither you nor I can keep carrying this.

Quite frankly I have no idea how we've managed so far, but I'd like to think of it as a testament of our endurance capabilities.

We were supposed to carry it for a limited time. Our mistake was to assume we'd do so for a short period and we also failed to consider the weight and dimensions it would have.

Another omission was to take in account that there would be those who would gladly add their stones on top of our pile, thus making it heavier than it already was.

For some people is really easy to drop their rocks unto others and pretend nothing happens.

But the truth is that something does happen.

It's due to all those things that in both our names I will now say "No more".

Today I erect this monument to that stress that you and I have been carrying, to that aforementioned...

I'm sorry.

"Monument" is the wrong word. Why the hell would we want something honoring such Brobdingnagian ballast?

No, it shan't be a monument. It will be a dumping ground. A graveyard. It will be the orphanage where we will leave that stress and no matter how much it bawls and kicks, tells us that it loves us or tries to make us believe we need it...

It shall stay there.

Now it will know how it feels to live with a perennial feeling of abandonment. It will know how it feels to live with an invisible yet palpable pressure that does its damage in silence. It will know how it feels to burn during the day and drown at night in silence.

Always in silence.

And then it will see the sun and the moon pass it every day and nothing will change. Time will march on and the stars will see it there: motionless, stuck, static, entrapped.

Just as you have been. Just as I have been.

If you agree, I propose that that we drop here all those stones that we've accumulated for too long and that we meet here each year to get rid again of all that stress. 

We can no longer keep carrying it, accumulating it, dragging it, pampering it, using it as an excuse or justifying it.

Do you realize that we've been drinking poison and for some reason we're expecting to feel good when doing it?

Preposterous, don't you think?

Neither can we keep carrying overweight that doesn't belong to us. I don't know about you but I won't keep receiving it. Maybe I'll come across as cruel by shutting the door in the face of those who wish to dump their waste on my lap, but I couldn't care less anymore.

I'm not a charity and my sanity is not public property.

So let's leave this heavy rock here, in the middle of nowhere, where it won't affect anyone, where no one will find it.

It shall be our secret hidden in broad daylight.

Let's leave it then and let's not look back. No matter how much it yells, cries and kicks, let's ignore it and carry on with the things that we want, that we long for, that are urgent, that we care about, that are under our responsibility.

Just let it go.

Done?

Perfect.

I will see you again in a year.

In the meantime, here lies our stress for every year.

You're invited to my Flickr gallery.