You Can’t Eat Politics, Can You?
Op-Ed
Who wouldn’t agree with the Republic of Georgia staying away from politics for at least a little while and doing something more attractive? I suggest we get busy with a simple theme of ‘good living’ instead. Just for a change! Good living as such has been the ultimate goal of Man since the Australopithecus became extinct on earth and Homo Habilis came around in its place. So I am not trying to suggest anything terribly strange and new to deliberate on.
What, in reality, is a good life? It probably means living well, and I am neither the first nor the last man to know and say this. I even went through pages of specific reading matter on the topic before I embarked on turning my thoughts into words, whereupon I concluded that we have nothing more important on our hands right now than seeking to give ourselves a quality life. This is exactly what our western partners, certainly worthy of emulation, are concerned about rather than wasting time and political energy on issues that have no way of keeping their people, a.k.a. electorate, full and sated. Every other concern comes after this steadfast priority that we are used to qualifying as a good life: such is the nature of a life-quality evaluation scale.
The notion of a good life differs from place to place, from community to community, from nation to nation, and from person to person, but there must be an average standard that works globally. I would be more than happy to transplant that average into this country, but a good life is such a stubborn little thing that it never visits us just like that, out of the blue. It takes a lot to grab it by the ear and drag it in. In the first place, good living happens in time and space, and needs a lot of work to materialize. What I mean is that a good life will not happen to us unless we spend time on it and make well-targeted moves in the space that is given to us for those moves.
One might ask, fairly enough, why am I using so many words to introduce the topic? Because I am cautiously tiptoeing towards an interpretation of the problem that might be very painful for all of us here in Georgia, where time is not appreciated and is wasted instead on a livid desire to talk and talk and talk, and to do this talking, as empty and senseless as it is, anywhere in the god-given space: a crowd-full street or an office building, a facility of media or an entertainment joint, a wedding or funeral, a lovers’ shack or a sweetheart’s birthday party, a mama’s yard or a papa’s orchard, or just an old neighbor’s cozy kitchen. We are crazy about talking and politicizing every move of ours, and this has been happening in the last thirty years with no visible end in sight.
So, the entire time meant for creating the prerequisites of a good life is used on talking, and what is most fascinating, we have the proclivity to wonder all the while why a good life is so late arriving in this land. We are not prepared to understand that if we only talk, that good life will walk: this is the rule of thumb we can’t hide ourselves from. Talking would have been OK if it did not have a shocking propensity to translate into tiring gibberish on any possible issue, mostly politics – I apologize for the word! Well, politics is not that bad a thing after all, but it is not edible, is it?
What I am trying to drive home is so awfully simplistic, but I can’t help it. I just see and take to heart the effect of the oversized and overdone political or other type of talking in Georgia, which might very well curb our creativity and productivity which are absolutely indispensable for letting a good life conquer this soil. Moreover, we need to keep mum for a brief while in contemplation, and let our thoughts and inclinations take a different shape and direction, aimed at eliminating the excessive talk and giving the nation the energy for productive work and the consequential birth of good living. In the well-informed Georgian society, everyone knows what good living looks and tastes like. Who would not go for it? Especially when the secret of bringing it in is already clear: shut up and start sweating!
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: georgiantable.com