"Applaud me!" one shouts into the silence of an open field. Nature itself is the only audience. Tree shadows too lazy to move represent the public: no humans, no stages; just grass that has never learned the etiquette of applause. Yet, the echo slaps back at the speaker like a whisper from a parallel boredom.
The clouds in the sky grow round and gather as spectators. Thunder claps promise applause, while grin-lightning winks excessive enough to be just as theatrical for stage lights. A cat saunters by, gives a passing glance, and then yawns-it is the brutally honest ovation for the night. The world seems indifferent, but the objects have a scheme: power poles are mute jurors to the motley audience; leaves clap their applause with secret rustlings, and ants march like tiny fanatics who never bought tickets.
"Applaud me!"
LOUDEST one yet, shouts back from the earth. A tiny crevice flowers into a wildflower almost at once withered as if existence itself wanted to give the speediest standing ovation in the universe. There's some empty earthen building there that just ceaselessly bounces the voices, throwing them at one another transforming it all into a grotesque concert: a single actor begging recognition of nothingness, and nothingness responding with pomp that only exists within the skull.
Really, every “loud” person is only wrestling with the absurd itself: if one asks a mute universe to make noise, it does mean ovation from the indifference of reality. But perhaps that's the essence of being human: we clap for ourselves while hoping the cosmos joins in. To the rest, thunder, cats, and ants will do, as our eternal audience.
The amazing thing is that even “loud” people are only wrestling with absurdity itself, they usually ask a universe that is mute for making noise and seem to demand an ovation from reality's indifference. But this, perhaps, is the very essence of being human; we clap for ourselves hoping the cosmos will join in; otherwise thunder, cats, and ants will serve as our eternal audience.
So, every "loud" person really attempts to fight absurd completely, the one asking a mute universe to make noise demands nothing less than an ovation from the indifference that is reality. But perhaps that's part of being human: we clap for ourselves while hoping the cosmos joins in. If it doesn't, thunder, cats, and ants will do as our eternal audience.
