Maybe life is only an instant lost in a desert, with water, yes, lots of water, wishing to die but being afraid of it at the same time, and with a clock that says: “your time is up.”
PRESENCIA
Oxygen
A short story
By
David Alberto Muñoz
PRESENCIA
Oxygen
A short story
By
David Alberto Muñoz
The phone rang while I was taking a shower. I like to take a shower every day. Even on weekends. I know some people dislike water sometimes. I am not certain why but to each its own don’t you think? Even if it is really cold and the water heater is not working, the most excelling experience of my day is to fell the water running through my body. Somebody told me once that oxygen comes from the water. Is that true? I am not really sure about that and actually I don’t care. What matters is the sensation of freshness you get when your head hits the water. I breathe deeply, exhaling deep oceans of life.
Anyway, I had to walk across the bedroom because the phone was left next to the treadmill. Yes, I used to use it before I started swimming. My back was hurt. Plus I am not a kid anymore. I wish I was. If I could know what I know today and be 17 years of age I would be king of the world. Sometimes I feel like that though. When I manage somehow to stop time and truly enjoy the moment I feel like I could climb to the heavens above and spin through the darkness of the hell contaminating the entire world with a scent of hope.
Hope? Yes, I think that’s what we all need, hope.
The phone call was from my job. They were as they put it: “letting go of some people.”
“Are you firing me?” I asked.
“No Mr. Bullock! We want you to know it is not because of incompetence or anything like that. The economy is having a lot of problems as you know. Millions of people are losing their jobs. There have been cuts in the budget of more than six million dollars and our company is not that big if you compare it to some of those big guys.”
“What I am supposed to do?”
“We are all in the same boat. If I could help you I will, if the company could help…but this is the reality of it. Those of us that still have a job want to keep it. It is not personal Mr. Bullock that is just the way it is. Best wishes Mr. Bullock!”
They just hanged up the phone.
I have been working in that company almost my entire life. I can say that I have almost no memory before I began to climb up the ladder to where at least I believed I was. And all of the sudden, everything collapsed. I have a family like everybody else. Bills to pay, credit cards, car payments, mortgage, plus the basic things like food and clothes and everything else I have gotten myself into it. What was I going to do?
That morning I made a decision. I was not going to allow my family to suffer just because the stupid government was facing a deficit. They are using my money to get a fix! It is not fair! The entire world is facing a deficit! It is frustrating to see how the company continues to waste money in stupid things while many of us are force to go into welfare and unemployment. I get angry, irritated, exasperated…and yet…when we compare ourselves to other nations in the world I come to realized how bless we truly were.
I guess all I can do is hope.
What really puzzles me is that in life goes on without a hitch. There are still people buying at the malls, eating at the restaurants, drinking at the bars, individuals competing in international sports events, people going to churches, neighbors fighting each other, adolescents making out in a park with bright daylight, festivals taking place, Barbie celebrating 50 years of age, the Pope accused of defending a bishop who question the Holocaust, while millions of people are looking for a job.
I don’t get it!
I don’t know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it seems like the end of the world. Like a prophecy spoken through one of the prophets. It doesn’t matter which one! I am tire of all the bickering because everyone wants to be right. Anywhere you look the same problem is taking place. If hope disappears then the world really is going to hell. Perhaps this is why life is too short. Because we could never handle all the pain and suffering, all the injustice we commit. Maybe life is only an instant lost in a desert, with water, yes, lots of water, wishing to die but being afraid of it at the same time, and with a clock that says: “your time is up.” We all know it, but we are too selfish to fix it. While children are dying of hunger we buy a Blackberry, while we throw away food someone wishes they could have it.
After that phone call our life changed. We learned to live day by day. We don’t make plans for the future. We prepare for today and perhaps for tomorrow. We have learned not to hate so much but to appreciate the help of others. We try not to judge even though we can never make people happy. There will be always someone speaking behind our backs. And most likely we will speak behind the back of others. I think this is the only way people can react, through having needs, through experiencing real suffering, through realizing that we are not gods, we cannot shed our old skin and turned the time back, time weights upon us, leaving a mark, scratching our own soul with the realization that at least for some time we were alive.
The phone rang while I was taking a shower. I like to take a shower every day… Somebody told me once that oxygen comes from the water…is that true? I breathe deeply, exhaling deep oceans of life…hoping…yes…just hoping…with the oxygen I have left.
Anyway, I had to walk across the bedroom because the phone was left next to the treadmill. Yes, I used to use it before I started swimming. My back was hurt. Plus I am not a kid anymore. I wish I was. If I could know what I know today and be 17 years of age I would be king of the world. Sometimes I feel like that though. When I manage somehow to stop time and truly enjoy the moment I feel like I could climb to the heavens above and spin through the darkness of the hell contaminating the entire world with a scent of hope.
Hope? Yes, I think that’s what we all need, hope.
The phone call was from my job. They were as they put it: “letting go of some people.”
“Are you firing me?” I asked.
“No Mr. Bullock! We want you to know it is not because of incompetence or anything like that. The economy is having a lot of problems as you know. Millions of people are losing their jobs. There have been cuts in the budget of more than six million dollars and our company is not that big if you compare it to some of those big guys.”
“What I am supposed to do?”
“We are all in the same boat. If I could help you I will, if the company could help…but this is the reality of it. Those of us that still have a job want to keep it. It is not personal Mr. Bullock that is just the way it is. Best wishes Mr. Bullock!”
They just hanged up the phone.
I have been working in that company almost my entire life. I can say that I have almost no memory before I began to climb up the ladder to where at least I believed I was. And all of the sudden, everything collapsed. I have a family like everybody else. Bills to pay, credit cards, car payments, mortgage, plus the basic things like food and clothes and everything else I have gotten myself into it. What was I going to do?
That morning I made a decision. I was not going to allow my family to suffer just because the stupid government was facing a deficit. They are using my money to get a fix! It is not fair! The entire world is facing a deficit! It is frustrating to see how the company continues to waste money in stupid things while many of us are force to go into welfare and unemployment. I get angry, irritated, exasperated…and yet…when we compare ourselves to other nations in the world I come to realized how bless we truly were.
I guess all I can do is hope.
What really puzzles me is that in life goes on without a hitch. There are still people buying at the malls, eating at the restaurants, drinking at the bars, individuals competing in international sports events, people going to churches, neighbors fighting each other, adolescents making out in a park with bright daylight, festivals taking place, Barbie celebrating 50 years of age, the Pope accused of defending a bishop who question the Holocaust, while millions of people are looking for a job.
I don’t get it!
I don’t know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it seems like the end of the world. Like a prophecy spoken through one of the prophets. It doesn’t matter which one! I am tire of all the bickering because everyone wants to be right. Anywhere you look the same problem is taking place. If hope disappears then the world really is going to hell. Perhaps this is why life is too short. Because we could never handle all the pain and suffering, all the injustice we commit. Maybe life is only an instant lost in a desert, with water, yes, lots of water, wishing to die but being afraid of it at the same time, and with a clock that says: “your time is up.” We all know it, but we are too selfish to fix it. While children are dying of hunger we buy a Blackberry, while we throw away food someone wishes they could have it.
After that phone call our life changed. We learned to live day by day. We don’t make plans for the future. We prepare for today and perhaps for tomorrow. We have learned not to hate so much but to appreciate the help of others. We try not to judge even though we can never make people happy. There will be always someone speaking behind our backs. And most likely we will speak behind the back of others. I think this is the only way people can react, through having needs, through experiencing real suffering, through realizing that we are not gods, we cannot shed our old skin and turned the time back, time weights upon us, leaving a mark, scratching our own soul with the realization that at least for some time we were alive.
The phone rang while I was taking a shower. I like to take a shower every day… Somebody told me once that oxygen comes from the water…is that true? I breathe deeply, exhaling deep oceans of life…hoping…yes…just hoping…with the oxygen I have left.
© David Alberto Muñoz, Ph.D.
Faculty Philosophy & Religious Studies
Chandler-Gilbert Community College
2626 East Pecos Road
Chandler, Arizona 85225-2499
(480) 732-7173
david.munoz@cgcmail.maricopa.edu
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