Oscilate Wildly

Smiths has been my soundtrack on the last days, and of all the songs I love, the one that brings tears to my eyes is Oscilate Wildly, an instrumental one, and the reason behind that is that I already have all the lyrics in my head, lyrics of a huge number of sad songs. And also because I live to write, something I once describe to a friend as a curse, altought at the time I said that, I just wanted to sound clever. But after wondering a lot, and also after reading a novel by Javier Cercas, I´ve came to the conclusion that that´s what it is, a curse. I go around in a constant search for a good story. Nothing is insignificant. Everything can be used somehow, someday. We´re vampires of others people´s lives, or lives that we just made up from a snapshot we get.

I thought about that when I saw a picture on monday, of a Free Syrian Army fighter playing with a dog (LINK). Since I saw the picture, I couldn´t stop thinking; who was this man? what are his bieliefs, how was his life before this gruesome war started, and I thought about the dog, about their accidental encounter, and wondered if they both make it to the end of that day. And also how was it possible for this man to ignore the background, the killings, the destruction, the gassed victims, and enjoy the company of a dog on a sunny day?

Maybe the answer is in an essay by George Orwell, A Hanging (check HERE). Because we happen to be alive now, at this very moment. Because we´re alive up to the moment we´re dead. On this essay, Orwell describes the day he witnesses a hanging. The prisioner who´s going to be hanged walks in front of him, a walking dead. There´s a puddle on his way. What does he do? He steps aside. For what, one could ask. To avoid getting wet,of course, altought it may seem absurd. To me, the main reason is because he can step aside. At that moment, he is still a living creature. Avoiding the puddle reinforces his humanity. He does it, because he´s still alive.  
The man plays with the dog because they´re both alive in the middle of chaos, death and suffering. Others didn´t make it, too bad for them. Escaping death brings a furious happiness, something both Orwell and Cercas mention. We will keep on stepping aside puddles, playing with dogs up to the moment we cannot escape.