Fall Seven Times, Get up Eight

 Marcus Alden Meredith

November 11, 2024

Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight

Perseverance in the Coming Times of Trials

I went to bed early on Election Day 2024. I did not want to watch the endless chatter of the pundits and other talking heads and had no idea of the outcome… I just had a very bad feeling. I made it a point when I woke up the next day not to go to the news on NPR. This was a major break for me in my morning routine as I’m a public radio nut. Yup, I’m a newsie and have been from a very young age. So, I did the morning supplements and tea preparation and headed to look at emails on the office computer. That did it….

I have not had the heart to watch or listen to the news since that day; a serious concession for a news hawk such as I. As time has worn on my Facebook friends have been a comfort and I have comforted them too. We are afraid… and decidedly demoralized. But, in such times filled with a dread and bemoaning the possible dark future ahead, an old Japanese saying has kept buzzing in my head, almost like the ring of a far away bell tolling, portending better times if we but hold fast to that small ray of hope it offers: “Nana korobi ya oki” - Fall down seven times, get up eight. Persevere. Like a shaft of light on a stormy day, it tells us to do what we must as the darkness makes ready to descend because it has happened before and your parents, grand parents, great grand parents and on back made it through to let you be alive today - you are the proof of their resilience. This has all happened before in some way, in a sense.

A scene from The Witcher has also kept buzzing around in my head, toying with my mind. The scene begins with a dragon hunt underway and the prize is to be given a vassal state to the king for the winner to run (and presumably all of the wealth that goes with it too). The usually stoned face Gerald of Rivea will have none of it, looks up, and says, “Kingdoms and empires rise and fall like the tides.” Like a sharp blow to the head, my history lessons sprout in my brain again and come into full bloom. “Yeah, that’s for damned sure,” flashes my synaptic response. I go back in time and ask, “Yeah, when Rome collapsed, what happened to most of the people?” Well, mostly not much. They just kept on doing what they had to do to make a living. Most of the time who’s “in charge” will mean very little to what you do every day. But, if it does, keep on keeping on - you fall, you pick yourself up, and keep doing .

What I’m suggesting is not to be passive to what may come. Remember acceptance should not be confused with passivity. But you are not a super-hero. You and I are, truly, forthrightly, plainly just mere mortals. One of the best things to do is to remember the Stoic view of what is in our control and what is not. If it is within my control, I will deal with it. If not, I must (if only for my sanity’s sake) let it go. At the same time, I know that the dark spectre of hatred toward “the other” is getting deadly and all to uncomfortably near, ready to rear it’s ugly head - this time with the power of the Federal government. If the time comes and a friend says to me, “They’re rounding up all the people without documents or green cards! Tony here needs a place to hide, can you help him?” I would be less than a man to refuse to help another human being in need. Espousing grand philosophies but being unwilling to act would make me the worst kind of hypocrite.

As I write this blog, I’m listening to Mozart’s Requiem (which he never finished as he died that year at the age of 35 from scarlet fever, most likely ). The sequence is in Latin: Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis, voce me cum benedictus… “When the accursed have been consigned to flames of woe, call me with the blessed.” Yeah, there’s nobody like Mozart baby! But then comes my favorite part, The Lacrimosa - “The Mourning.” Google the Lacrimosa  of Mozart, listen to it (chances are you’ve already head it somewhere once):

Lacrimosa dies illa Mournful that day

Qua resurgit ex flavilla When from the dead shall rise

Judicandus homo reus Guilty men to be judged

Huic ergo parce, Deus, Therefore, spare him, O God,

Pie Jesu Domine Merciful Jesus,

Dona eis requiem Lord, grant them rest

We all will, hopefully, find some way to deal with what has happened and what is to come. “Gird your loins” to  use the archaic phraseology. Do not do what Cato did when he lost against Caesar; his solution was to commit suicide. You see, centuries later the despotic yet singular mind of Napoleon would comment upon Cato’s actions while gazing at a statue of him and remark how cowardly he thought Cato had been to act so and deprive Rome, his family, and his friends of his counsel, wit, and stratagem. I think Napoleon was right. There are very, very, rarely times when we can see no other recourse but to punch our ticket out of this existence - but now is not the time. Right now the sun is shining, cars driving by, people walking their dogs, and life is moving on. Live it. Memento Mori - remember death is waiting for us all. But, to steal another quote, this time from Game of Thrones: “And what do we say to the God of Death… Not today.” And look how little but mighty Aria saved the day.

Pax, amici mei Peace, my friends.