The Duality of Invasion
You wake up and brew the coffee. The beans are from Peru. You’re not sure how old they are, but they’re here and you paid $12.99 for them. You think that’s a good deal.
You start water for the oatmeal. You prefer rolled because all your parents made was steel-cut when you were growing up. You take the first sip of coffee, dark and burnt, just as the water begins to boil. You measure out a cup of oats with a steel measuring spoon. You think about how cold it is today, and just then you feel the heater kick on.
You go to your kitchen table to eat the food and drink the coffee. The heater vent is just beside the kitchen table. It feels good to feel the hot air blow past your bare feet and legs.
It’s time to go to work. You work remotely. You don’t have to leave your warm home. You don’t need to put clothes on. You light a candle, throw the dishes in the dishwasher, and play music streamed from your phone onto a Bluetooth speaker. Today’s playlist includes Bjork, Stan Getz, Neil Young, and H.E.R. You think you’re eclectic, don’t you? You go onto Instagram and/or TikTok and/or Facebook and/or Snapchat and/or Twitter and/or Signal and/or Discord and/or the official slack channel for sharing things in your life that have nothing to do with the work you’re doing (which is?) and share a picture of your playlist. You think people will care. You think people genuinely are interested in what you're listening to. You sip coffee in your PJs. You wait for people to like/heart/love/react/share/retweet/upvote your playlist picture. No one does.
Five thousand miles away a soldier is incinerated. He has a wife and four kids. He was told this was a good job. He was told it was honest work. He was told he would never see action.
The soldier sat in a tank. You sipped coffee while he popped amphetamine pills to stay awake. He saw his life flash before his eyes as the exhaust from a Russian T-70’s barrel billowed out. He had two seconds before the shell would strike his tank. There wasn’t enough time. He thought about his kids, his mom, his wife. Then he was on fire.
You still didn’t get any likes/hearts/love/reacts/shares/retweets/upvotes. You wonder why.
