የኔም ዓይን አይቷል: That’s Just the Way It Goes
Before you dive in, I suggest you press play on the soundtracks below. To truly feel the glitch of life, listen to the one you don't know first. If you know Passengers The way it goes, start with the Zeritu or vice versa.
If life were a video game, it would be the kind where the controls are inverted, the map is missing, and the final boss is just a giant clock that stops whenever it feels like it. We walk around acting like we’ve mastered the levels, but the reality is much more chaotic. We spend our time obsessing over small things the "straight and the curly" hair or the "buying and the selling" completely missing the fact that we are living in a giant, beautiful, and slightly broken simulation. As Passenger puts it,
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,
which is really just a polite way of saying the universe is constantly reshuffling our lives like a deck of cards it doesn't know how to play.
We tell ourselves that life is fair, but then we look around and see the glitch in the system. There’s always that one person who seems to have been given all the cheat codes while everyone else is just trying to find the 'Start' button. Zeritu Kebede captures this perfectly when she observes,
አንዱ በዝቶበት ሲቸገር መምረጥ / ሌላው ምንም አጥቶ ላይታች ሲራወጥ.
It’s a bizarre comedy where one person is stressed out because they have too many choices, while someone else is running themselves ragged just to find a single thing to hold onto. We "don't get it yet" because we like to pretend that our hard work is a guarantee, but the world often operates on a different, much more random frequency.
The truly sad part the part that hits you right in the gut is that some people spend their whole lives waiting for the storm to pass, only for their time to run out before the sun ever shows up. It’s a heartbreaking reality when you realize that someone can be
በጽናት ሲታገል ልልፋ እስኪያልፍ እያለ / ሳያልፍለት ያልፋል እንደተቃጠለ.
They fight and they strive, thinking they are just one step away from the finish line, only to "pass away before the struggle passes." It’s the ultimate cosmic "Denied" notification. And while that person is fighting their final battle, someone else is just waking up, stretching, and starting their first day of a new adventure. It’s exactly as the song says:
For one man’s start is another’s goodbye.
We search for a reason because the alternative that everything is just a roll of the dice is too heavy to carry. We want to believe in a grand design, whispering to ourselves,
እሱ አይሳሳት ሁሉን በምክንያት
hoping that there is a purpose behind the cure and the poison. But as much as we try to solve the puzzle, we usually end up with more questions than answers.
It’s just the way that it goes and I couldn't say why,
Passenger sighs, and he’s right. There is no manager to call, no "Undo" button to press, and no way to know if our battery is at 90% or 1%.
So, if life is this fragile, slightly unfair, and totally unpredictable glitchy mess, maybe the only way to get it is to stop waiting for the instructions. If you can lose it all in a heartbeat, you might as well enjoy the music while it's playing. We are all witnesses to this strange show, and as Zeritu says,
የኔም ዓይን አይቷል
our eyes have seen the unfairness and the beauty. Since we don't know when the "goodbye" is coming, the least we can do is make the "start" worth the ride.
