Four Reflections on the Change of Times

Die Wutachbrücke bei Tiengen am 9. November 2021 (Foto: Martin Dühning)
Die Wutachbrücke bei Tiengen am 9. November 2021 (Foto: Martin Dühning)

Times are changing, not entirely unpredictable events are progressing. This does not mean that one could not have directed them better – if one had wanted to …

Simultaneity - Poem (Text: Martin Duehning)
Simultaneity – Poem (Text: Martin Duehning)

Simultaneity

People start from false premises
When they construct that there is a difference
Between their ego and their life.
There is no ego that is separate:
We ARE our life: past, present and future.
That is all – and it’s a lot!

So we are many in one,
Not just spirit and mind.
We are not walking machines,
We are relationships, interwoven.

Although I have met so incredibly many
Different people in my 46 years of life,
I still believe that every single human
Is unique and irreplaceable as a person.

Even if everything else passes away:
This uniqueness remains.

* * *

Remembering - Poem (Text: Martin Duehning)
Remembering – Poem (Text: Martin Duehning)

Remembering

People do not become less valuable through death.
Because they remain a unique person.
And as long as we keep their memory alive within us,
They can become present with their personal story.

What distinguishes the living from the dead
Are the possibilities: That‘s life.
Death is the end of all possibilities,
While the story of the living is still being written
And it can be retold and rewritten.

Even the great history is also written
Neither by the victors nor by the losers,
But by the survivors.

* * *

The Sense of Action and Reaction - Poem (Text: Martin Dühning)
The Sense of Action and Reaction – Poem (Text: Martin Dühning)

The Sense of Action and Reaction

You can recognize incompetent people
By the fact that they believe
You always have to do as what you can do.
Since they already exhaust themselves
Completely in doing, the sense is secondary:
Actionitis is above everything for them
And the great doer is for them a demigod.

But divinity manifests itself much more
In preserving possibilities and
Not in regulating everything.

True strength is shown in free and tolerant reaction,
True competence in weighing up the measures,
True wisdom in waiting for the right moment –
Not in unrestrained action,
Not in egoistic performancing.

* * *

The Dark Side of the Force - Poem (Text: Martin Duehning)
The Dark Side of the Force – Poem (Text: Martin Duehning)

The Dark Side of the Force

I never wanted to rule, I never wanted to conquer.
Therefore, I was often enough thought to be weak,
Because many confuse politeness with weakness.

Sure, if I had used my skills better,
If I had abused my gift of foresight,
Then I would now be a tyrant, powerful.

But power despises weakness.
Power corrupts.
And power ruins character.

First they become rulers, then they become ruins.
I have observed this often enough in others.

Believe me: You don’t want to end up like that!

* * *

 

Über Martin Dühning 1503 Artikel
Martin Dühning, geb. 1975, studierte Germanistik, kath. Theologie und Geschichte in Freiburg im Breisgau sowie Informatik in Konstanz, arbeitet als Lehrkraft am Hochrhein-Gymnasium in Waldshut und ist Gründer, Herausgeber und Chefredakteur von Anastratin.de.