The Rooster

Written on December 7, 2024 in Key West Florida after being awakened by, you guessed it, a rooster.

"Cock-a-doodle-dooo" echoes throughout the streets of Key West on this Saturday morning, and I'm sure every other morning in between. It's nature's own alarm clock. And it goes off early and often. Real early. So early that upon first hearing of this prehistoric call, one may be annoyed, angered, and ask "why the f*ck?" On this particular day, however, I couldn't help but feel intrigued, inspired even, by the call of this colorful, reptilian looking creature with feathers. I found myself cooped up in the driver's seat of Ophelia, sun slowly making it's way over the neighborhood homes, and the rooster letting everyone know it was a new day. And the more the rooster called, the more I couldn't help but realize that's just what a rooster does. It's fulfilling it's prophecy. It's purpose. Giving meaning to it's time on Earth even though I'm fairly certain the rooster has no idea what "meaning" is. All it knows is what it does. And that's beautiful and simple and very much jealousy provoking for modern man with his unlimited things to do & be. We can only long for a purpose as clear and as simple as the rooster's... But maybe ours is that clear, too.

Alan Watts used to say that "The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain & so obvious & so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves." And I think that statement glazes a bit of truth in our world full of lies. It does seem likely that life is meant to be alive...To be lived...To be experienced. But I also know that being human, especially in the modern world, means that you have the option to assign meaning to your life. And that choice can bring a great deal of anxiety or uncertainty to the mind of the individual. Sometimes its nice to just know what you have to do & to do it as abstraction can take a tool on anyone's psyche. This is why things like folding laundry & doing the dishes are quite the teachers if you allow them to be. But if the sole purpose of human life is simply to be alive, have you not already accomplished that? Is not your existence already enough? And is it not the voice of the world that convinces you otherwise? I'm not you, so I'm not sure. I will say, though, that these are interesting things to consider. And this is not to say that nihilism is the way, that nothing matters, life is grim & we all might as well do the worst & the least because there's no point anyways. It's quite the opposite, actually.

The odds of you being born are some 400 trillion to 1. I'm not quite sure what that even means, but it sounds ridiculous & coincidental. And I'll be the first to tell you that coincidences don't exist. Magic does. And the fact that you exist is magical. And if you are faithful & courageous enough to believe that belief, everything seems to become meaningful...Because everything you are experiencing is apart of your life & your living your life is the point. You are the point to your own life. Always have been, always will be. Everything else is simply a way to experience that grand purpose. Some of it sucks. Some of it you can't get enough of. But all of it, is it. The rooster knows this. And it lets you know that it knows.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo" motherfucker.

There's life to be lived.

So, live it.

-Logan