Imperative Existential Evolution (The Anthropology of the Future Pt. 4)

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

"I don't consider myself to be a very educated person, 'cause I've spent a lot of my life in dreams. . . And I was walking around wondering, 'If I knew the history of the world, would everything make sense to me or would I just lose my mind?'  And I came to the conclusion that I'd probably just lose my mind.  The next day I went into a bookstore and walked to the wall in the back, and there was The Diary of Anne Frank.  I'd never given it any thought in my entire life.  I spent two days reading it and then completely flipped out. . . I spent three days crying, and just completely flipped out.  While I was reading the book, she was alive to me.  I pretty much knew what was going to happen.  But that's the thing.  You love people because you know their story.  You have sympathy for people even when they do stupid things because you know where they're coming from, you understand where they're at in their head.  And so here I am as deep as you can go in someone's head, in some ways deeper than you can go with even someone you know in the flesh.  And then in the end, she gets disposed of like a piece of trash.  And that was something that completely blew my mind.  The references to her on the record - like Ghost refers to her being born.  And I would go to bed every night & have dreams about having a time-machine and somehow I'd have the ability to move through time & space freely, and save Anne Frank."   -Jeff Mangum, lead-singer & lyricist for Neutral Milk Hotel, of The Elephant Six Collective (full interview at https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/7471-neutral-milk-hotel/)


Powerful.  For those of you who don't know the back-story:  Jeff Mangum was haunted by Anne Frank's diary. . . but rather than being haunted to despair, Jeff found a deep love for this adolescent girl that lived & died before his time.   It sparked the creation of the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which many consider to be one of the greatest and most influential records of all time (if you haven't listened, please give it a spin:  https://open.spotify.com/album/5COXoP5kj2DWfCDg0vxi4F?si=KpzqKx-oSiGO-K459vIPjA).  The tracks on this album are the most played on my iTunes.



What does this tragic yet touching tale give us?  It gives us imperative to keep loving & creating.  Rather than ultimately despair at the absurd horror of The Holocaust, Jeff dreams about traveling in a time machine to save Anne Frank, because in his heart one innocent child of The Universe's soul is reaching out to another's.  Even if not in waking-life, in dreams Donnie Darko-esque plot-twists are possible.  Through this process, Jeff gives birth to one of the most important musical pieces of the late 20th Century.

We'll probably never be able to travel back in time and change history (never say never though, right?).  We can, however, learn from every mishap and fuck-up if we view with proactive loving consciousness.  We're in the midst of an existential evolution, where every bout of depression, every fit of despair, every tragedy that we see humans commit against one another gives us the chance to say "It doesn't matter - I'm not giving up - I'll go on caring, giving, creating, and loving because I know it's what we're capable of.  I'll spread the seeds of compassion and wait for the flowers to bloom.  I'll do what I can, with what I have, where I am. . . and no matter how it plays out. . . I'll know I listened to my soul and that's all I can do."  If you can live this mantra day-to-day, you won't have anything to regret on your eventual death-bed. 

How did mass-shooting shock us so starkly at Columbine over twenty years go, and then continue to become commonplace?  Did you know an 18 year old high-school senior from Florida flew to Denver last year, bought a gun at a shop near Columbine High School, and intended to reenact the massacre?  (https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/us/columbine-threat-search-for-woman/index.html).  That was less than a year ago!  Thankfully she wasn't able to hurt anyone else. . . but even still a young, lost soul died with a bullet in her head.  These tragedies are caused by isolation, alienation, and resentment.  If we don't change cultural habits to ensure we're gathering together with open-minds and open-hearts and looking out for each other, isolation & alienation will continue.  Here is a recent Wall Street Journal article about how so many teenage girls have become sick with depression & loneliness (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lonely-burden-of-todays-teenage-girls-11565883328).  Here is a widespread crisis! We can change this with shift in intentions.  It starts with making the effort to relate to the people who are near us.  Make eye contact & smile when you walk by someone. . . you don't even have to speak: just locking the gaze quickly and giving the affirmation, the "namaste" that silently tells, "I know You and I are part of something that matters."  Don't ghost people. . . if you don't want to talk to someone tell them why. . . communicate your feelings.   Let's evolve with ecstatic enthusiasm.