Questions about existence

By celine s diaz

Based on a poem written for the class of Film, Work and Anthropocene. I started to reflect on my work experience, first, as an artist which involves questioning my place and impact in the world; and, second, my experience working 9 to 5 jobs, in restaurants, in shops and all the summer occupations as a teenager in which I was ordered to do certain things that went against my moral and ethical views: Throwing away food, destroying products, wasting water… 

My uncle is working for a coal mine. He studied environmental engineering but as for so many, there is no option when you have to sustain your family and jobs are cut. You go to work although it goes against what you defend.  So we close our eyes and try to not feel responsible for what we are doing because someone else is steering the wheel. 

We are connected. We are interconnected. We are part of a big natural system in which we partake. The artificial structure that guides our actions is trying to obliterate from view that in truth we are connected. From what we are made to do for work, to what we eat, we leave something for another person (human or non-human). The world is made of more than what we are made to believe.