Louise was aged just 15 and Angélique was 18. Lives cut short in 1904. Ten years before the Great War. Thirty five years before the outbreak of WWII. Before Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot, Gaddafi, Hussein, Bush-Cheney, Blair and other tyrants. Before airplanes, films, television, motorways, washing machines, fast food, rocket ships, computers, mobile phones and other blessed innovations.
Louise and Angélique toiled in a Parisian factory. An embroidery factory, if you please. Louise was sad because her mother had just died. More than sad. It seems she discussed the idea of suicide with her friend Angélique. Angélique was a true friend, prepared to accompany Louise on her journey from life.
Did they find life so hard, so cheerless, so bleak that, on the brink of womanhood, they felt no optimism at all about the future? Was hope completely extinguished? Were their fingers numb and their spirits deadened from embroidering cloth twelve hours a day week after week?
Suicide was the last resort, but they took it. Together.
“Friends Die Together” intoned the newspaper headline. Probably no headlines would have punctuated their lives, had they lived. We would never have heard about Louise and Angélique marrying decent men, and having a handful of pink babies between them. Their children never grew up and made more children. All these missing souls never had the chance to breathe, to laugh, to change the world for the better.
It happened one hundred and eight years ago, on July 5th. A boatman found them, after the river found them. Floating, just floating. Side by side.
Louise was aged just 15 and Angélique was 18.
Sad.
Illustrates survival of the fittest.
Soon the Homo Sapiens Sapiens wil become unfit then it will go extinct as well.
Compassion is opossible when there is ability to register and understand.
Compassion leads to sharing the pain of others.
The collective pain is so huge that if one allows himself to share it that burden will surely kill him.
That what depression is.
And that is how life gets ridf of the unfit.
The same ability to understand that yield to compassion should also bring a breake to taking in more pain than one can handle.
In this case one keeps on going and contributes his or her genes of awareness understanding and compassion to the pool from which eventually the Homo Cogitans emerge and become true stewards and protectors of all life-forms on the planet including themselves.
Posted by: Aboc Zed | 13 December 2012 at 16:00