"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough" -Mae West. Life, a mystery which evaded even the most brilliant of brains, has been solved in the novel songlines; the trick, to live a productive but never stagnant lifestyle ,be humble with your tangibles and be positive. In 21st century America, most of the population lives this stagnant lifestyle, never 'walking' or challenging themselves mentally or physically. Considering this, I find the novel songlines a direct message from Bruce Chatwin to western society; the ability to live without our miscellaneous 'things' and the lack of movement, physically and mentally, describe our society. Be positive, another message Chatwin subliminally sends to the reader. Overall, I agree with Bruce Chatwin about how to achieve success in our and for our society; we must be always physically, and mentally moving and must remain positive in light of our varying situations.
"Today, he said, more than ever before, men had to learn to live without things. Things filled men with fear: the more things they had, the more that had to fear. Things had a way of riveting themselves on to the soul and then telling the soul what to do." (Chapter 14, Page 64) Tangibles, more than anything have significantly hurt western society. November 28, 2008, a walmart employee was run over as a mob full of anxious shoppers, on the hunt for sales, ran into the store and apathetically trampled him. The importance these shoppers (and the whole human race) put on 'things' has absolutely decimated western society. We care more about the physical appearance and the cost of tangibles then the morals of a man; this idiotic way of thinking has our society stagnant mentally. We live in a world where instead of fixing a car's breaks, business' greedily ship them out to save money, a world where the rich live on multi-million dollar homes with and the poor struggle to find a dinner for the evening. What Chatwin tries to tell us could solve most of the problems on earth; to stop being visual and greedy creatures and actually value whats on the inside as well as despise though who greedily live with an abundance of unnecessary things. All in all we must live a more humble life for our fellow man and for ourselves as well.
"Our nature lies in movement, complete calm is death 'Pascal Pensees' (Chapter 30, Page 163). A reoccurring theme of the novel, to have a fulfilling life, you and your surrounding environment must be progressing, moving forward. In the novel, Chatwin uses the verb 'walk' to represent the process of development , physically and mentally. "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little" (Thomas Merton). Settling for too little and remaining average slows the development of people, and slows the development of us , we all need to be walking, learning and achieving to live a fulfilling life. "Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thoughts so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.... but by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill.... Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be alright." (Chapter 30 , page 171) Though talking about the physical motion of walking he also talks about the mental motion of walking. The quote is so powerful because it discusses to different types of movement essential to human life and the development of our society; without physically walking we will physically become ill but without mentally walking, thinking, we will become mentally ill, movement is crucial to the fulfillment of our lives. Living an average life, according to Thomas Meron is our biggest temptation and according to Chatwin it is also our biggest problem.
Remain positive, the last of the important subliminal messages Chatwin sends to his readers. In the year 1962, the Russians, the enemy at the time, sent the U.S two very contradicting messages. One message was passive and wanted to get both countries out of the situation they found themselves in and the other message was baiting war. The presidents cabinet discussed what to do, as the cabinet discussed possible solutions, Bobby Kennedy stood up and announced to the cabinet to only answer the passive message. After that the situation boiled down and fizzled out. Without the positive attitude demonstrated from Bobby Kennedy it could be debated that I wouldn't be typing this essay right now. "The smile, I said, was like a message from the Golden Age. It had taught me to reject out of hand all arguments for the nastiness of human nature" (Chapter 25, Page 133). Chatwin also conveys this idea. By smiling he says he has learned to reject out of hand arguments and the nastiness of human nature; by remaining positive in the case of Bobby Kennedy, the human race continued to live. The message seems simple but the power behind it can save a race like Bobby Kennedy or avoid the problems associated with human nature like Bruce Chatwin.
Be Positive, keep walking physically and mentally and remove the unnecessary greed from human life are the most important subliminal messages. Simple but powerful, these messages can save our race from our very own destruction. The three commandments of Chatwin has even taught me to alter my lifestyle into a more positive direction.
