Rehearse for Ressentiment

Otherwise, however, would the tarantulas have it. “Let it be very justice for the world to become full of the storms of our vengeance”⁠—thus do they talk to one another.

If it has not already arrived, it soon will

You must be prepared, or you'll meet serious trouble

That idiot will get the promotion, or the mate, or the clothing, or the home

Before you do

Rubbing your nose in it will turn out to be a hobby for that idiot

Some idiots will become so adept at rubbing noses in it

They will turn professional, trafficking in resentment and the appetite for revenge as some sort of art form, to be gobbled by the equally resentful and vengeful many

The villain you swore could never be elevated to a position of any real power or influence in a rational and just society

Will preside over that society like a confused and offended grandfather and shoot innocents in the street for having the temerity to protest against the shooting of innocents in the street

Hideous, new diseases will sneak into all sorts of people under mysterious and terrifying circumstances and shove the whole planet into panicking at home in its pajamas

The one you thought understood, and was understood in turn, got bored and distracted and up and disappeared, after some petty betrayals and clever insults that not even cocktails can forget

The weather will go mad and insist that it is perfectly sane

Everything you ought to eat will be as expensive as it is disappointing

Everything you wish to eat will befoul your body and rot your soul

In exchange for a few moments of belching bliss

No one will write anything alone anymore

The ones you were fondest of, at work or at play, wherever you do that

Will sleep in the soil or betray and humiliate you in order to replace you

You will seethe and blister with the desire for revenge; you will call it justice and demand it

Be prepared

Understand that the most ignominious, abominable, infuriating moment

Is the price of the most exquisite, luscious, yes and amen moment you have known

You cannot condemn life, you cannot demand revenge upon it and roll it into your web of ressentiment, your culture of incriminating clips

The whole is nothing but the concatenation and animation of all of the clips into a single, sordid, soaring story

You cannot have revenge

Memories cannot be sued

Fantasies cannot be subpoenaed

That moment, that sanctifying, sensational scenario that washed the whole, torturous, absurd sum of things and made it sparkle

You had to endure everything to be granted admission to that moment, and you will have to endure everything that follows to cherish and understand it

Do not let revenge become a tyrant, shouting at your heart

Reject ressentiment, for you are not an ingrate

Life is nothing but change

If this moment is insufferable, alter yourself, or it

Do not use life's name in vain

Love