When I walked in the room I encountered another kind of republic, a secure one which was made by man. It was inhabited and I loved every inch of it. The right side of the room was completely dark since the house was not open for living, and the sun was barely there. Outside of the room, there was a campfire set up to celebrate the opening of the house. A sheep had been slaughtered and everyone who had helped make the house a reality was there to celebrate. No one’s attention was on the job and the smell of the good cooking covered the air. The community was dark and quiet. Almost no one hosted it. You couldn’t hear the sound of cars passing by since the road itself was not built. Children played on the streets much like they did normally on grasslands. I wanted to join them but the smell of the freshly cooked meat appealed to me so much I didn’t have the desire to go outside and play. Even after all my envy, I think I managed to scrape myself half a plate of food. A whole sheep was gone in under 5 hours. I realized that the more I grew up, the threat of someone else occupying my republic would be about the same.
Learning concepts like “sharing is caring” was a regular. Once we moved in the house, I was another companion to my family member learning hard lessons of a democratic life. I thought being alone is bad, and being with others is good. When the house was barely inhabited, entering the bedrooms when it was dark became a champion venture. I was often scared to the point fear would occupy my inner being where I would barely even try to go into the bedrooms myself. I thought writing with a blue pen was good on a white piece of paper and writing with a red pen was bad. Teachers would correct mistakes on our math papers with red pens. We were not allowed to use anything but a blue pen. When we came home, we were punished with rods and sticks in which they went as far as to name the harming object “pride”, in the feminine form.
I was taught things were bad through the word “kaka” which translates to poop, and was instructed to mean “bad”. However, in the Japanese language, the word for red is “Aka”, which 33
comes close to the word “kaka”. When watching anime and using Japanese utensils and items, the words come together so well to the point you assume the color red is bad, and the color blue is good. I think I was taught to the point the fear of being alone started to set in by the time I became a teenager. Pride was put in place in a hard core way, along with a lot of gusto delights in the democratic units.
Once again, my consciousness returned after a long drift in a democracy. Now that I am grown and have an understanding of government, I can tell what I was taught. I was about 12 and I was left alone at a school I attended. I was supposed to get picked up in a car by my parents but they were late. Everyone had been picked up then the sun started to sink into the sky. As things drew dimmer, I was once again alone by myself to contemplate life in a Republic. It was a mesmerizing sight. I occupied so much space by myself. I was happy I was left alone and the sinking feeling in the stomach, along with the fear of being alone, started leaving my gut. I was set free again from any kind of education that was occupying my mind along with the information I was instructed to be true. The math classes were great. The English classes were awesome and the PE classes were liberating but they were not something I felt happy doing.
Where I felt myself the most was when I left the company of others to go into the living room and draw by myself. I taught myself how to draw, and how to put shapes together to form images. I didn’t pick up well on fonts until I realized you can add words to images and drawings you can make by yourself. There was complete happiness there. I was glad to put pen to paper and form the arm and face of a human being. I scaled the top of the paper, then occupied it with images of fictional characters. I drew for hours at a time. I drew cars and then I made color images of super heroes from some of the movies I would watch. I would look outside of my canvas and see the world as it was, still and quite where I would gaze into the empty spaces of 34
the walls and see there were no objects on them. I would ask myself, “Why didn’t someone put up images or photographs here?”. The answer would arrive by itself after some time. It was because of the fear of being alone. The more I was separating myself, everybody else was uniting with someone else and forming larger groups. Exams would arrive, and while studying with a tutor, I dreamt of the art I would create then and there where there was no one inhabiting my consciousness. I would go far away until the time after my studies and I longed to be liberated from the nightmare that was studying. I didn’t understand what I disliked. Looking back, It was the occupation of another person in the room. Till this day, I still love the subjects I studied but not when someone else is occupying the same domain I am in. It wasn’t the person I hated, it was the occupation.
My liberation came the moment it started raining. When the sound of the dripping rain hit the top of the roof, and the sound of the instructor was no more heard, in the air, I was freed to do as I pleased. To this day, I love the rain so much. I love the rain because when it starts to rain outside, everyone who is on the streets runs for cover. Every human that is on the streets or occupying the space on the roads, would go to the nearest point for cover. I still find it fascinating because when you stick your neck outside, there would be no one on the roads except cars. Rain frees up the space and the air outside the house. When there are thunderstorms in the sky, when the sky is gray, when the temperature keeps changing along with the wind, it creates a Republic outside and your house.
The environments tend to create the opposite effect as well. Before it rains, there was a Republic on the inside, in the majority of houses. When it rains, almost everyone outside who was working the land starts to occupy the inside. I tend to leave the house the moment it starts to rain because the whole democratic unit occupies the house, and the Republic switches to the 35
outside. The whole point of government downed on much later in life when I was a college student. Rain is a natural phenomenon that makes the environment a Republic in itself because even the birds of the air no longer host the air. The animals on the grounds go for cover under the shades of caves and tree branches where they are safe from the cold and you see it with your eyes. The rain itself is a beautiful entity because it creates a government in itself. In the whole world, there is nothing more pleasing than listening to the sound of rain while you are kept safe in the empty space of a house. When the rain starts to fall for long periods of time, when the air is no longer hosted by the creatures of the air, and the habitation is not ruled by other humans, it is more pleasing than you can ever imagine. I often start to get numb with pleasure. I go places in my mind where I am my own companion. I find answers to questions I have been seeking for long periods of time. My mind goes on to answer questions it has created itself and desperately wants to know, such as the god questions. I sit there looking to the skies and start to realize, if there was ever a god, he would host the Republic. I would start to think to myself, if humans were ever created like the stories I was told when I was a child, they would emerge from the soil, the primordial ooze or reptiles they are. The start of all creation would be staring you in the face while the rain falls on the empty soil, and the ground turns into mud, where the plants are uncultivated and the land has not been managed, unless it’s your own house.
To be a Republican means to love who you are when you are alone. I believe all of creation or evolution of species first started with the Republic. Much like the previous paragraph, my emphasis is on the point that if there was ever a god, he/she would be hosting the Republic making things happen. I find it hard to not accept the reality when nature is wide open, and there is no competition for the view in front of you. The rain makes it possible. If there was a perfect natural event in the world, it would be the rain since it makes Republics. The rain itself is 36
something that could be worshiped as the most perfect government, or maker of government because it creates moistures in the soil, it makes plants grow. In return, plants make food for the animals, where the animals in return are consumed by humans and other animals alike. To be a Republican does not mean you hate other people. It does not mean you have the right to harm others in favor of the government you want. Much like a democracy, the concept in itself is a philosophy. Even if the humans you grew up with taught you lessons you did not want to learn, it doesn't mean the lessons were wrong. They were correct, and perfect the other way, they were perfect democratic lessons. The teachers were perfect democratic instructors, and the way of life is just as important as the other one. To be a Republican does not even mean to hate democracy itself since the first thing that starts to happen when you bring another person you love into your own government is creating a democracy. To be a Republican means to understand that the democracy you intend to create itself requires the cultivation of the land, the formation of the habitat into a perfect Republic that you want to shape it to be. The secret of the Republic is, if there is no one to inherit it, you would be the last Republican on the land. If you were not to marry, or host another, eventually, the government itself will outlive you and it will exist by itself without the intentional occupation of another. The beauty of the Republican and the Republic is also there, when you pass it on to another person that shares the same vision as you. It doesn’t have to be a person born from your blood line, just another person younger who would carry on the objectives you have, the government you want to keep to another and keep it for generations to come.