Latin Heartaches Put Words to and Irish American's Despair

On occasion, the lens through which we have so far viewed the world is insufficient to process our current experience. So this evening, since I couldn't get a handle on the angst I was feeling and we were making taco soup and home-made tortillas anyway, I cranked the Julio Iglesias station on Pandora and let the sappy baladas do the talking for my aching sentiments. Going a little further down the rabbit hole, I wondered what my feelings would be like if put to heart wrenching latin music:

I cannot express the loneliness that scorches my soul in pining for a reality I have merely glimpsed at the quietest moments in the farthest recesses of my imagination. The sentiment is lost like fresh spring water through my fingers as I vainly cling to the fleeting sensation.

And now, each of us perches upon vastly distant cosmic bodies, revolving farther from each other with the vacuum between us expanding as we continue upon our separate karmic journeys, set in motion by all events leading to this moment. All bred in ignorance and suffering, not of our essence, but saturating us in this existence.

Wherein but ourselves lies our freewill? Have we the courage to grasp hold and wield it to bridge the chasm and break the shackles that bond our hearts to habits and fears of our unenlightened past?

Have we the wherewithal to shed light upon the darkness that obscures the vastly common experience that bonds us as humans? Can we not embrace each other as siblings in the family of humankind?

Alas, we have thus far been unable as a society to conceive this bond and live as kin. It is in fool hearted longing that we might think this is possible now. We destroy the beauty that surrounds us and out of suspicion and perceived scarcity borne of our own weaknesses see our brothers and sisters as rivals to be feared, competing for seats at the table of affluence with such limited space. And as we destroy each other, we lay waste the beauty and grace of the natural world around us. Pitiful narcissists are we, whose egos deceive us into feeling superior to the natural beauty and abundance that surrounds us, vain enough to think we can improve upon it with the damning creations of our own ambition, driven by engines of despair and longing.

Can we transcend the fear and anger that drive us to each other’s and the world’s destruction? Can we renounce the insecurity that compels us to harness, tame, exploit, and destroy all the plentitude and beauty of this earth that sustains us? Have we the vision to raise the bar of our aspiration beyond destructive indulgence of the senses toward spiritual fulfillment and kinship with all that surrounds us? Instead of resorting to fear, can we find love and adoration for people different from us, who rather than pose danger, offer opportunities to learn, grow, and become fuller humans?

Ha! Good luck with that one. But there may be hope. Humans are occasionally capable of beautiful, selfless action. And as long as air fills our lungs, we have the opportunity to try. And in so doing, with intentions pure of heart, we evolve toward a harmonious existence that may someday truly compliment the natural grace of this earth.

Thank you for your inspiration, Julio Iglesias. Although I'm not sure my compatriots will understand-or I, for that matter, as I move on from this fleeting revelation.