Ruination

Haven’t we always seen the world but as a future ruin?


Wasn’t the world always ruined for us? Wasn’t it always a work of ruination? Wasn’t everything we’ve done only part of the general ruination? Haven’t we only ever piled more rubble upon the rubble?


Why was it given us to know so many terrible things? Through a kind of instinct – a terrible instinct. Through our temperaments. Through our Grundstimmungen. Were we born with such a Stimmungen? Might there be other, lighter Stimmungen? Lighter ways to see the world? Not our apocalyptic bias, but a joyful one?


The dream that you might say yes, instead of no. that you might be able to affirm, rather than condemn.


Go beyond us, postgraduates. We hope for you because we want to hope for ourselves, to believe that even our lives are redeemable. Our love for you is kindness to ourselves – is love for what we might be, in another life. In your lives, maybe.


You’re our chance, postgraduates – because you are not us. You are our future – because we are not you. Carry us forward, but in a new way. On a new wave. Sweep us onward. Bear us further.

We’re tired of living this kind of life. We’re tired of this grisly epoch. We’re tired of ourselves.


You’re not cursed like we are, postgraduates. You’re not fallen. Innocence – that’s what you possess.