So, yesterday I came to a conclusion that I am just weak. Not just in body but in my soul and my mind. I lack the will power to leave the people in my life that just cause me to go insane or batter and bruise me. I only left one person that did such things to me, and that would be my mother. But right now, I have quite a few other people like that.
I wish I had the will power to pull away.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Mommy Dearest
So, todays entry isn't that insight full, I've been meaning to wright this bit for a while now.. I just havn't come to do so until now. My mother has been pissing me off. She makes me angry to the very depths of my soul. I can't stand how much controll over my emotions that she has. Though I do not let her see it, I have all these feelings of hate harboring inside me. I just want to scream and yell and make my anger known. I was thinking about her last night, and this is what I came up with to say to her:
Shut up.
Just shut up.
I don't really care what you have to say anymore.
And I don't really think you've ever given a damn about what I had to say.
So if you'd kindly step back, shut the hell up and plant a bullet in your skull, that'd be splendid.
Please refrain from bleeding on the carpet. It has just been cleaned.
But otherwise, have fun dying. You sack of shit.
But as you probably figured, I will never say such a thing to her [even if she's said and done much worse to me]. That would just be putting myself on the lowest level. I don't know what I want to tell her... that there was too harsh. But it makes my feelings known. I don't know. She just isn't the best person in my life, never has been, and never will be.
Shut up.
Just shut up.
I don't really care what you have to say anymore.
And I don't really think you've ever given a damn about what I had to say.
So if you'd kindly step back, shut the hell up and plant a bullet in your skull, that'd be splendid.
Please refrain from bleeding on the carpet. It has just been cleaned.
But otherwise, have fun dying. You sack of shit.
But as you probably figured, I will never say such a thing to her [even if she's said and done much worse to me]. That would just be putting myself on the lowest level. I don't know what I want to tell her... that there was too harsh. But it makes my feelings known. I don't know. She just isn't the best person in my life, never has been, and never will be.
Please Don't
Now, I am not one to complain overly much here, but today, I think I am going to get a few things off of my chest, from the mildly irritating to that which goes right up my ass sideways.Let’s have at it:
· TAGGING--Please don’t tag me. I never respond or participate. Mostly for the same reason that I always ignored chain letters which evolved into chain e-mails. All I will do is piss off the people I pass it on to, and waste a bunch of my time.
· COMMENT DEMANDING—This is just so unforgivably childish, really. Pissing and moaning that someone faved your work and didn’t write some flowery words for you. Excuse me, but could you do yourself and everyone else around here a favor and just grow the fuck up? Someone took the time to actually look at what you made (say thank you) and add it to their favorites, or specific gallery, as the case might be (say thank you again!). You are not entitled to the trifecta, and shame on you for being such a little brat about it.
· WARPING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE—As a native English speaker, I am intensely embarrassed when I see people from Europe or Asia or South America or anywhere else include a disclaimer in their signature apologizing for their shaky command of English, and then see some idiot from America using text-ese for their communication, or worse. Here is a fucking news flash: MEH is not a frigging word. It is "me" or "my". You don’t look cool, you look fucking illiterate. And to all of those who try, I say thank you for actually making the effort to communicate in English. I wish the Google translator offered me Polish or Romanian, I would use it. I hesitate with Russian languages only because I do not recognize the alphabet at all, and can’t be sure if I am typing actual words. Sorry for that. And to anyone else: U, 2, and 4 are not words. Use the whole word, please.
· TIME—Someone will get mad at me for this (as if no one else did already!). I don’t care, really, how long something took you, unless it is more than a year, and you have made a real and serious commitment in your life to it. Why? Because the amount of time spent has no effect on the quality of the art, I feel. Now, before you all go apeshit at me, let me qualify that statement. There are hundreds, thousands of deviants out here who could spend an hour with a pen and paper, and draw a picture. I could spend a month doing the same thing, and it not be anywhere near as good as the hour-long job. But I spent more time on it. That still don’t make it art!
· COWARDICE—Look, I don’t have a thin skin (and Bo, one word from you and I'll kick you right in the nuts! ). When I post a photo, it is up there for public consumption, good bad or indifferent. I know all about that. But I am referring to these cowardly imbeciles who shit all over someone’s work and their person in general, just because they are protected by the infinite bravery of anonymity. God, these guys can make me ashamed to have a penis sometimes [just kidding I don't have a penis]! Ladies, on behalf of the entire penis-carrying population, I apologize. Most of these guys are virgins at 35 anyways.
· DRAMA—There is nothing worse than a public pissing match. Reaslly, have some dignity and take it elsewhere. I am here to see some art and my friends, not for a floor show.
Well, I guess that’s a good start for now. Hope I didn’t upset too many people today.
· TAGGING--Please don’t tag me. I never respond or participate. Mostly for the same reason that I always ignored chain letters which evolved into chain e-mails. All I will do is piss off the people I pass it on to, and waste a bunch of my time.
· COMMENT DEMANDING—This is just so unforgivably childish, really. Pissing and moaning that someone faved your work and didn’t write some flowery words for you. Excuse me, but could you do yourself and everyone else around here a favor and just grow the fuck up? Someone took the time to actually look at what you made (say thank you) and add it to their favorites, or specific gallery, as the case might be (say thank you again!). You are not entitled to the trifecta, and shame on you for being such a little brat about it.
· WARPING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE—As a native English speaker, I am intensely embarrassed when I see people from Europe or Asia or South America or anywhere else include a disclaimer in their signature apologizing for their shaky command of English, and then see some idiot from America using text-ese for their communication, or worse. Here is a fucking news flash: MEH is not a frigging word. It is "me" or "my". You don’t look cool, you look fucking illiterate. And to all of those who try, I say thank you for actually making the effort to communicate in English. I wish the Google translator offered me Polish or Romanian, I would use it. I hesitate with Russian languages only because I do not recognize the alphabet at all, and can’t be sure if I am typing actual words. Sorry for that. And to anyone else: U, 2, and 4 are not words. Use the whole word, please.
· TIME—Someone will get mad at me for this (as if no one else did already!). I don’t care, really, how long something took you, unless it is more than a year, and you have made a real and serious commitment in your life to it. Why? Because the amount of time spent has no effect on the quality of the art, I feel. Now, before you all go apeshit at me, let me qualify that statement. There are hundreds, thousands of deviants out here who could spend an hour with a pen and paper, and draw a picture. I could spend a month doing the same thing, and it not be anywhere near as good as the hour-long job. But I spent more time on it. That still don’t make it art!
· COWARDICE—Look, I don’t have a thin skin (and Bo, one word from you and I'll kick you right in the nuts! ). When I post a photo, it is up there for public consumption, good bad or indifferent. I know all about that. But I am referring to these cowardly imbeciles who shit all over someone’s work and their person in general, just because they are protected by the infinite bravery of anonymity. God, these guys can make me ashamed to have a penis sometimes [just kidding I don't have a penis]! Ladies, on behalf of the entire penis-carrying population, I apologize. Most of these guys are virgins at 35 anyways.
· DRAMA—There is nothing worse than a public pissing match. Reaslly, have some dignity and take it elsewhere. I am here to see some art and my friends, not for a floor show.
Well, I guess that’s a good start for now. Hope I didn’t upset too many people today.
People Change
This has been a learning week, one where I found myself face to face with realities I never wanted to have to face up to. Normally, I would save this for one of my "What I’ve Learned" but this is more than I can fit into a few glibly packaged words or lines, so here is what I’ve learned this week:
Now, to begin, I claim no form of expertise on human relationships or anything of the sort. I just kind of cruise through my own life, try not to fuck up anyone else’s too badly (we’ve talked about this), and hopefully have a little bit of fun and a few laughs along the way.
But I’ve been around for a while now, and I’ve done a few things and been to a few places. I have picked some stuff up along the way, I would like to think. Funny thing is, none of it really prepared me for this.
People change. We all know that. Am I the same person i was a long time ago? or even last month? Not at all. I am changing all of the time, and so are most of you. Yeah, sure, some folk are quite happy to live indolently on their couch and never change or do anything, but I hope to never be one of them.
But sometimes people do more than change. Sometimes they go away altogether, and get replaced by someone you don’t even know. Sure, this new person looks awfully familiar, but they are someone else. The best parts have been replaced with things you don’t know, and don’t want to know. The person you knew is gone.
And that’s just a cast-iron bitch of a thing to have to face up to. It really is. And you will do anything you can not to face up to it. For the sake of how much you care for this person, you will let your self-respect take second place, again and again and again. Because you are holding out for the notion that your person might come back.
And that is the very worst part of it, because every now and then, you see a glimpse of that person, a shadow or a ghost of who they used to be. You will here it is a turn of phrase, in a laugh, in the sudden easy flow of a conversation, and BOOM doesn’t your heart just flower with hope all over again, at the idea that maybe he or she is still in there, and if you hold out a little bit longer, try a little bit harder, you might be able to bring them out.
But they are just gone, and you will get your heart broken over and over and over again by trying, and every single time the heartbreak is fresh and bloody and fucking horrible, like the very first time it ever happened.
Or you can endure the one massive heartbreak of finally having to turn away and move on, and just god-damn get on with your life. And sure, the next asshole who tells you that time will heal all wounds is within a hare’s breath of getting a good kick in the balls from you, but I guess that sooner or later, it proves to be true.I sure do hope it does, anyways.
Now, to begin, I claim no form of expertise on human relationships or anything of the sort. I just kind of cruise through my own life, try not to fuck up anyone else’s too badly (we’ve talked about this), and hopefully have a little bit of fun and a few laughs along the way.
But I’ve been around for a while now, and I’ve done a few things and been to a few places. I have picked some stuff up along the way, I would like to think. Funny thing is, none of it really prepared me for this.
People change. We all know that. Am I the same person i was a long time ago? or even last month? Not at all. I am changing all of the time, and so are most of you. Yeah, sure, some folk are quite happy to live indolently on their couch and never change or do anything, but I hope to never be one of them.
But sometimes people do more than change. Sometimes they go away altogether, and get replaced by someone you don’t even know. Sure, this new person looks awfully familiar, but they are someone else. The best parts have been replaced with things you don’t know, and don’t want to know. The person you knew is gone.
And that’s just a cast-iron bitch of a thing to have to face up to. It really is. And you will do anything you can not to face up to it. For the sake of how much you care for this person, you will let your self-respect take second place, again and again and again. Because you are holding out for the notion that your person might come back.
And that is the very worst part of it, because every now and then, you see a glimpse of that person, a shadow or a ghost of who they used to be. You will here it is a turn of phrase, in a laugh, in the sudden easy flow of a conversation, and BOOM doesn’t your heart just flower with hope all over again, at the idea that maybe he or she is still in there, and if you hold out a little bit longer, try a little bit harder, you might be able to bring them out.
But they are just gone, and you will get your heart broken over and over and over again by trying, and every single time the heartbreak is fresh and bloody and fucking horrible, like the very first time it ever happened.
Or you can endure the one massive heartbreak of finally having to turn away and move on, and just god-damn get on with your life. And sure, the next asshole who tells you that time will heal all wounds is within a hare’s breath of getting a good kick in the balls from you, but I guess that sooner or later, it proves to be true.I sure do hope it does, anyways.
The Presidential Elections
Unlike previous election years, when there was never any real question of who was getting the job as President of the United States, this is a bunch of possibilities grouped together in a very diverse collection.That does not make them any less of a bunch of assholes, but what the hell, nothing ever does!
Actually, that’s not fair. I think Obama (and am I the only one who thinks he would be pretty cool if he just had a single name, like Bono or Cher? Obama…….who the hell else is going to have that name? Drop the Barack, and be the first single name candidate!) has some real decent ideals and hopes for this country, made even more engaging and charming by his youth and lack of tenure in DC. That doesn’t make me dread him being elected any less, though. We’ll come back to that in a bit.
The Democratic Party has three viable candidates. Well, two and a half, I guess. John Edwards just doesn’t count, but I think he will make someone a fine running mate. Putting him aside, we have a black man and a woman who want to make history. Well, history in this country, at least. Because America is still under the old-boy network, isn’t it?
And all of the old-boys are WASPs.WASP, for those who do not know, stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Catholics are out, mackerel-snapping bastards that we are. Why, you ask? Pretty simple rational, really. It’s the big reason the Klan has such good fun torching crosses: because Roman Catholicism has its roots and leadership in Italy (well, the Vatican, to be exact, but you know what I mean), and not America. I am unsure where Orthodox Catholics have their leadership. If anyone knows, do please tell. Add to that the fact that the Catholic Church, in this country, is a church of minorities. Think about that for just a second. Where do you see a lot of Catholics? Boston, New York, Chicago, southern Texas, and Los Angeles. And who is there? The Irish, Italian, Latin and Polish. Not a whole lot of good old-boys named Duffy, Rondinelli, Silva, or Wojika. Generally speaking, if your name ends in a vowel, you are out of the old boy’s club.
Even so, We have Hillary and we have Obama. Let’s begin with Hillary.I want to make it very clear, right up front, that I think it is high time we had a woman in the White House, sitting in the center seat. We are way behind the rest of the world in this. Think about something for just a second: Pakistan had a wonderful woman as Prime Minister, and we still haven’t. Anyone see something amiss here?That being said, while I would like to see a woman, I would not like to see this woman. I don’t like Hillary. Never did. The whole business she had with secret files on Republicans which she refused to hand over during her husband’s term bothers me. A lot. Something else that sticks with me too: when George W. made his first State of the Union address after 9/11, I recall sitting with a friend of mine watching it, and as W. spoke his piece, the camera flashed to Hillary, and showed her saying something nasty to the person next to her, like "Listen to this asshole". I found that disrespectful not only to the speaker, but to the country as a whole. Stuff like that is hard to shake, you know.
Also, with Hillary, if she were to be elected, she would be forever under the shadow of her husband’s presidency, whether good or bad. I will be the first person in the world to say that a lot of things that take place within a four year period are beyond the President’s control. The economy, for example. It is a living, breathing thing, with movements much like a pendulum. We swing good, and we swing bad, and it will do whatever it will do. Big business and outside influence has more effect on the economy than a President does.
Example: The auto industry. Oil is going at a sinful price right now, and who takes a beating? You and I, that’s who. But it is not just you and I. The auto industry gets killed. Domestic manufacturers long ago lost the sedan business. Toyota and Honda own those segments now. A Taurus or an Impala will never compete to a Camry or Accord. No getting away from the fact. So they refocused on the truck and SUV market. Dodge still owns the minivans, likely always will, but Ford and Chevy are no longer players. But they build trucks. However, as gas gets more expensive, demand for these brutes dwindles. What happens from there? It is a domino effect, and here is how it goes:
Ford will start closing plants, because they just don’t need so damn many F150’s sitting at the freight yards, because the dealers have stopped ordering them. But what happens when you close a plant? All of those workers are out of a job. Let’s use a number like 1000 workers. Now, remember this: the majority of the parts put into those vehicles come from outside vendors, and now they will start laying off workers. See where this is going? And all of those workers stop going to the malls and other such retail areas to spend money, and it spreads even further. So when you read about GM laying off 13,000 workers, take that number, and multiply it by at least five. That’s how many are losing jobs.
The point to all of this? If the economy goes all to shit under Hillary, it will set a woman’s chance back by decades, because she will be viewed as having only gotten the job through her husband’s name, and it is her fault it all went bad. If a woman is to be President, then let her come up through the ranks on her own, of her own unquestionable merit, and do the job to the best of her ability.
Now to Obama. I like him, let me be clear on this. I think he has some dandy ideas and ideals, and I think he is young enough to want to make some real change in this country. But here is what scares the shit out of me regarding Obama: We don’t need the Taliban or Al Qaida to provide us with murderous nuts. We can make plenty of our own high quality, full blown fucking whack-jobs right here, thank you very much. And anyone in the Secret Service will tell you that anyone can kill anyone if they want to badly enough and do not care about the consequences to themselves. I am deeply frightened by the very real potential of some idiot with a white sheet in his trunk putting a bullet to Obama, and setting this country back 100 years.
That is Hillary and Obama personally, but take a moment to look at them professionally. Neither has been a governor, and I firmly believe that should be a job requirement, way beyond this bullshit about a candidate must be born in this country to run for president. A governor is doing the President’s job, albeit on a much smaller scale, but it should be a requirement. I will make an exception in the case of Rudy Guilliani, since he was mayor of NYC, a city bigger than some states, but otherwise, you should pass this test before moving on to the White House.
Let’s move on to the Republicans. You have Rudy, Mitt, Mike, and John. Fred isn’t going anywhere, and I think even he knows it. If we take John out of the mix, which I think is fair to say anyway at this point. That leaves us with Rudy, Mitt, and Mike.
I like Rudy. I’ve said this before. He did big things in NYC. Go down 42nd Street, you know, The Deuce, and it is amazingly cleaned up. Like a lot of the rest of the city. But most of all, we have seen Rudy in a bad situation, and seen how handled himself. And his city. Yes, of course, the proper thing for the President that day was to be up in the air with a squad of F-16s protecting him. I would never question that fact, but Rudy, as opposed to George Pitacki, the governor of New York at the time, was right down there in the thick of it al, at risk to his own self, trying to hold his city together. I happen to be of the idea that this should count for something.
So on to Mitt and Mike. I think Mitt Romney is an elitist, stuck up prick of a human being, and much worse than that, he is a piss poor representative leader. A governor should represent the interests of his constituency, right? Well, think of this: Massachusetts has the highest per capita gay and lesbian population of any state in the Union (it was Time or Newsweek I read that in), yet Mitt Romney did everything he could to prevent gay marriage from becoming a reality. Sorry Mitt, but you have to stuff your own agenda up your ass and go with the people who elected you to represent them.
And this leaves us with Mike. Mike Huckabee. Governor and ordained minister.Mike is the most terrifying motherfucker I have ever seen run for president. Why? Because he want to "Take this nation back for Christ." That statement alone should have disqualified him from running, because he more or less told the American people that the whole idea, you know, that little notion of separating Church and State, is going to get pissed right out the window. And that, my good friends and neighbors, is the beginning of a theocracy. And what happens in a theocracy? If you ain’t one of the in-crowd, then you are in some trouble. Here is what makes it even more scary. The man is an Evangelical Born Again minister. Never mind the religious aspect of it all, but you know the son of a bitch can work a crowd, and make himself not only likeable, but eventually sensible in his ideas.
Actually, that’s not fair. I think Obama (and am I the only one who thinks he would be pretty cool if he just had a single name, like Bono or Cher? Obama…….who the hell else is going to have that name? Drop the Barack, and be the first single name candidate!) has some real decent ideals and hopes for this country, made even more engaging and charming by his youth and lack of tenure in DC. That doesn’t make me dread him being elected any less, though. We’ll come back to that in a bit.
The Democratic Party has three viable candidates. Well, two and a half, I guess. John Edwards just doesn’t count, but I think he will make someone a fine running mate. Putting him aside, we have a black man and a woman who want to make history. Well, history in this country, at least. Because America is still under the old-boy network, isn’t it?
And all of the old-boys are WASPs.WASP, for those who do not know, stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Catholics are out, mackerel-snapping bastards that we are. Why, you ask? Pretty simple rational, really. It’s the big reason the Klan has such good fun torching crosses: because Roman Catholicism has its roots and leadership in Italy (well, the Vatican, to be exact, but you know what I mean), and not America. I am unsure where Orthodox Catholics have their leadership. If anyone knows, do please tell. Add to that the fact that the Catholic Church, in this country, is a church of minorities. Think about that for just a second. Where do you see a lot of Catholics? Boston, New York, Chicago, southern Texas, and Los Angeles. And who is there? The Irish, Italian, Latin and Polish. Not a whole lot of good old-boys named Duffy, Rondinelli, Silva, or Wojika. Generally speaking, if your name ends in a vowel, you are out of the old boy’s club.
Even so, We have Hillary and we have Obama. Let’s begin with Hillary.I want to make it very clear, right up front, that I think it is high time we had a woman in the White House, sitting in the center seat. We are way behind the rest of the world in this. Think about something for just a second: Pakistan had a wonderful woman as Prime Minister, and we still haven’t. Anyone see something amiss here?That being said, while I would like to see a woman, I would not like to see this woman. I don’t like Hillary. Never did. The whole business she had with secret files on Republicans which she refused to hand over during her husband’s term bothers me. A lot. Something else that sticks with me too: when George W. made his first State of the Union address after 9/11, I recall sitting with a friend of mine watching it, and as W. spoke his piece, the camera flashed to Hillary, and showed her saying something nasty to the person next to her, like "Listen to this asshole". I found that disrespectful not only to the speaker, but to the country as a whole. Stuff like that is hard to shake, you know.
Also, with Hillary, if she were to be elected, she would be forever under the shadow of her husband’s presidency, whether good or bad. I will be the first person in the world to say that a lot of things that take place within a four year period are beyond the President’s control. The economy, for example. It is a living, breathing thing, with movements much like a pendulum. We swing good, and we swing bad, and it will do whatever it will do. Big business and outside influence has more effect on the economy than a President does.
Example: The auto industry. Oil is going at a sinful price right now, and who takes a beating? You and I, that’s who. But it is not just you and I. The auto industry gets killed. Domestic manufacturers long ago lost the sedan business. Toyota and Honda own those segments now. A Taurus or an Impala will never compete to a Camry or Accord. No getting away from the fact. So they refocused on the truck and SUV market. Dodge still owns the minivans, likely always will, but Ford and Chevy are no longer players. But they build trucks. However, as gas gets more expensive, demand for these brutes dwindles. What happens from there? It is a domino effect, and here is how it goes:
Ford will start closing plants, because they just don’t need so damn many F150’s sitting at the freight yards, because the dealers have stopped ordering them. But what happens when you close a plant? All of those workers are out of a job. Let’s use a number like 1000 workers. Now, remember this: the majority of the parts put into those vehicles come from outside vendors, and now they will start laying off workers. See where this is going? And all of those workers stop going to the malls and other such retail areas to spend money, and it spreads even further. So when you read about GM laying off 13,000 workers, take that number, and multiply it by at least five. That’s how many are losing jobs.
The point to all of this? If the economy goes all to shit under Hillary, it will set a woman’s chance back by decades, because she will be viewed as having only gotten the job through her husband’s name, and it is her fault it all went bad. If a woman is to be President, then let her come up through the ranks on her own, of her own unquestionable merit, and do the job to the best of her ability.
Now to Obama. I like him, let me be clear on this. I think he has some dandy ideas and ideals, and I think he is young enough to want to make some real change in this country. But here is what scares the shit out of me regarding Obama: We don’t need the Taliban or Al Qaida to provide us with murderous nuts. We can make plenty of our own high quality, full blown fucking whack-jobs right here, thank you very much. And anyone in the Secret Service will tell you that anyone can kill anyone if they want to badly enough and do not care about the consequences to themselves. I am deeply frightened by the very real potential of some idiot with a white sheet in his trunk putting a bullet to Obama, and setting this country back 100 years.
That is Hillary and Obama personally, but take a moment to look at them professionally. Neither has been a governor, and I firmly believe that should be a job requirement, way beyond this bullshit about a candidate must be born in this country to run for president. A governor is doing the President’s job, albeit on a much smaller scale, but it should be a requirement. I will make an exception in the case of Rudy Guilliani, since he was mayor of NYC, a city bigger than some states, but otherwise, you should pass this test before moving on to the White House.
Let’s move on to the Republicans. You have Rudy, Mitt, Mike, and John. Fred isn’t going anywhere, and I think even he knows it. If we take John out of the mix, which I think is fair to say anyway at this point. That leaves us with Rudy, Mitt, and Mike.
I like Rudy. I’ve said this before. He did big things in NYC. Go down 42nd Street, you know, The Deuce, and it is amazingly cleaned up. Like a lot of the rest of the city. But most of all, we have seen Rudy in a bad situation, and seen how handled himself. And his city. Yes, of course, the proper thing for the President that day was to be up in the air with a squad of F-16s protecting him. I would never question that fact, but Rudy, as opposed to George Pitacki, the governor of New York at the time, was right down there in the thick of it al, at risk to his own self, trying to hold his city together. I happen to be of the idea that this should count for something.
So on to Mitt and Mike. I think Mitt Romney is an elitist, stuck up prick of a human being, and much worse than that, he is a piss poor representative leader. A governor should represent the interests of his constituency, right? Well, think of this: Massachusetts has the highest per capita gay and lesbian population of any state in the Union (it was Time or Newsweek I read that in), yet Mitt Romney did everything he could to prevent gay marriage from becoming a reality. Sorry Mitt, but you have to stuff your own agenda up your ass and go with the people who elected you to represent them.
And this leaves us with Mike. Mike Huckabee. Governor and ordained minister.Mike is the most terrifying motherfucker I have ever seen run for president. Why? Because he want to "Take this nation back for Christ." That statement alone should have disqualified him from running, because he more or less told the American people that the whole idea, you know, that little notion of separating Church and State, is going to get pissed right out the window. And that, my good friends and neighbors, is the beginning of a theocracy. And what happens in a theocracy? If you ain’t one of the in-crowd, then you are in some trouble. Here is what makes it even more scary. The man is an Evangelical Born Again minister. Never mind the religious aspect of it all, but you know the son of a bitch can work a crowd, and make himself not only likeable, but eventually sensible in his ideas.
Emotional Off Switches
I have really tried to do one thing: to try and bring you the truth. You may not like the truth as I see it, but I will always tell you what is really on my mind.Still, you are likely already bored, so I better get to it before you click this off and just move on to the next entry.
In my letter to Santa, one of the things I asked for was an emotional off switch, just something to shut it all down for a while. Didn’t get that one, nor did anyone pony one up for my birthday, but I am still hopeful. It might still happen.What I am looking for is really not so rare, you know. A lot of people have one. They go from day to day, thinking life is purely about them and no one else. They grew up cold, and remained cold. Nothing really bothers them, except in as much as it might interfere with their day-to-day lives.
If you are one of those people, then just stop reading right here and now, and be thankful to any deity you believe in, even if it is the dollar, pound, or euro that you worship.
You may be irritated by the world around you not always remembering to cater to your every need and whim, but you are being spared something far worse: emotional loneliness.However, speaking to an artistic community as I hopefully am, I think that the bulk of you who have gotten this far will keep on reading, because you might just know a thing or two on the topic. It comes in a lot of different levels and flavors, you know. Your loneliness and my own might be very different things, but they are no less debilitating over the years.
So let’s take a moment to consider and acknowledge all of those folk who are going from one day to the next in a shroud of solitude, and would do anything in the world to shake it off, to be happy and fun and not have to be alone with their own thoughts night after night. Because they believe, just like I do, that there are some genuinely happy people out there, people who found that completion in their life, who are just as much into that person as that person is into them, and for whom the long view looks pretty shiny. Take a second and remember all of those who don’t, and raise a glass and salute the bravery with which they face their day to day lives:
· Consider all of those who didn’t get dealt a fair hand physically. Either they came out wrong, and something happened along the way, and no one wants to look at them, much less touch them.
· Give a thought to the girl who lets herself be the desperation fuck, the one you can call every couple of months and ask out and know that you are going to get some that night, and she lets herself go ahead and do it, because she misses the guy so much. Or maybe she doesn’t. Because deep down, she knows what she is to him, and she really detests him for it, but at least she won’t be home alone that night.
· How about the husband or wife who so utterly hate the creature they are married to, but have no way to break free. And let me tell you something, for some, there is no way, and so when they are alone they sit and take the long view of their lives, and know that this is it, it doesn’t get any fucking better from here, so just cry for a little while and settle in and just get used to it.
· Don’t forget the guy or the girl who carries the torch for that one person, that singular individual who is the sun and the stars and the moon to them. And that guy or girl would go through hell for the person, but the object of this person’s affections doesn’t even see them, except when it is convenient. Still, they put their pride and their dignity aside, even when sense, logic, and friends tell them to say "Go and fuck yourself" to this person, because they just keep holding out hope, even if it is for just one perfect day.
· How about this: how about that individual who has become so hardened and calloused by everything I have just described to you, who has built such a massive and fortified wall to keep themselves from getting hurt anymore, that they become unreachable. And they would give anything to be able to reach beyond that wall, but they have forgotten how.
· What about those who broke free, only to find that life on the other side, after you got rid of that horrible person in your life, is awfully damn cold. And they let themselves drift into things that they really shouldn’t have, because it beats another night of Law and Order reruns, because one more night of it and you really will go quite insane, you are sure of this.
· Lest we forget: we have all done things that were wrong. Some of us worse than others. Remember the folk who are so incapable of self-forgiveness that they lose the ability to see the good in others.
· Don’t forget the individual who finally faces the awful question "Are you afraid to go home?" Because now that loneliness they are so ashamed of is out there for all the world to see, and now it must be faced.
Oh, there a plenty more that we could talk about, and I will bet some of you are thinking of examples right now. Any of these examples, or combinations, make it awfully tough to keep on doing the dance called life, and it take one tough son of a bitch to keep it up sometimes. So finally, let’s raise a glass and a wish to the ones that don’t make it, who find the pills or the gun or the rope.
And I’ll tell you something, I don’t honestly believe they really wanted to die. I don’t really and truly believe that they wanted to end their existence on this earth and create such turmoil for their families. Some do, no doubt, but I think a lot really just wanted one thing: to shut the awful, howling, screaming silence of solitude off in their heads for just a little while, to just make it go away and give them a break. So before you point fingers and use words like "coward" try walking a crooked mile in their shoes, and see how happy you are.
PS—Don’t worry, OK? This is not a plea for help on my side, just an observation, like all the others I have made, just to maybe offer something worth thinking about.
In my letter to Santa, one of the things I asked for was an emotional off switch, just something to shut it all down for a while. Didn’t get that one, nor did anyone pony one up for my birthday, but I am still hopeful. It might still happen.What I am looking for is really not so rare, you know. A lot of people have one. They go from day to day, thinking life is purely about them and no one else. They grew up cold, and remained cold. Nothing really bothers them, except in as much as it might interfere with their day-to-day lives.
If you are one of those people, then just stop reading right here and now, and be thankful to any deity you believe in, even if it is the dollar, pound, or euro that you worship.
You may be irritated by the world around you not always remembering to cater to your every need and whim, but you are being spared something far worse: emotional loneliness.However, speaking to an artistic community as I hopefully am, I think that the bulk of you who have gotten this far will keep on reading, because you might just know a thing or two on the topic. It comes in a lot of different levels and flavors, you know. Your loneliness and my own might be very different things, but they are no less debilitating over the years.
So let’s take a moment to consider and acknowledge all of those folk who are going from one day to the next in a shroud of solitude, and would do anything in the world to shake it off, to be happy and fun and not have to be alone with their own thoughts night after night. Because they believe, just like I do, that there are some genuinely happy people out there, people who found that completion in their life, who are just as much into that person as that person is into them, and for whom the long view looks pretty shiny. Take a second and remember all of those who don’t, and raise a glass and salute the bravery with which they face their day to day lives:
· Consider all of those who didn’t get dealt a fair hand physically. Either they came out wrong, and something happened along the way, and no one wants to look at them, much less touch them.
· Give a thought to the girl who lets herself be the desperation fuck, the one you can call every couple of months and ask out and know that you are going to get some that night, and she lets herself go ahead and do it, because she misses the guy so much. Or maybe she doesn’t. Because deep down, she knows what she is to him, and she really detests him for it, but at least she won’t be home alone that night.
· How about the husband or wife who so utterly hate the creature they are married to, but have no way to break free. And let me tell you something, for some, there is no way, and so when they are alone they sit and take the long view of their lives, and know that this is it, it doesn’t get any fucking better from here, so just cry for a little while and settle in and just get used to it.
· Don’t forget the guy or the girl who carries the torch for that one person, that singular individual who is the sun and the stars and the moon to them. And that guy or girl would go through hell for the person, but the object of this person’s affections doesn’t even see them, except when it is convenient. Still, they put their pride and their dignity aside, even when sense, logic, and friends tell them to say "Go and fuck yourself" to this person, because they just keep holding out hope, even if it is for just one perfect day.
· How about this: how about that individual who has become so hardened and calloused by everything I have just described to you, who has built such a massive and fortified wall to keep themselves from getting hurt anymore, that they become unreachable. And they would give anything to be able to reach beyond that wall, but they have forgotten how.
· What about those who broke free, only to find that life on the other side, after you got rid of that horrible person in your life, is awfully damn cold. And they let themselves drift into things that they really shouldn’t have, because it beats another night of Law and Order reruns, because one more night of it and you really will go quite insane, you are sure of this.
· Lest we forget: we have all done things that were wrong. Some of us worse than others. Remember the folk who are so incapable of self-forgiveness that they lose the ability to see the good in others.
· Don’t forget the individual who finally faces the awful question "Are you afraid to go home?" Because now that loneliness they are so ashamed of is out there for all the world to see, and now it must be faced.
Oh, there a plenty more that we could talk about, and I will bet some of you are thinking of examples right now. Any of these examples, or combinations, make it awfully tough to keep on doing the dance called life, and it take one tough son of a bitch to keep it up sometimes. So finally, let’s raise a glass and a wish to the ones that don’t make it, who find the pills or the gun or the rope.
And I’ll tell you something, I don’t honestly believe they really wanted to die. I don’t really and truly believe that they wanted to end their existence on this earth and create such turmoil for their families. Some do, no doubt, but I think a lot really just wanted one thing: to shut the awful, howling, screaming silence of solitude off in their heads for just a little while, to just make it go away and give them a break. So before you point fingers and use words like "coward" try walking a crooked mile in their shoes, and see how happy you are.
PS—Don’t worry, OK? This is not a plea for help on my side, just an observation, like all the others I have made, just to maybe offer something worth thinking about.
Jesus did not have some sort of lock on the parable.
Jesus did not have some sort of lock on the parable.
Now, before certain of you get all kinds of furious at me for bringing name up, I did not have an intention to make this a religious discussion. Some of you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. Personally, I think we start to take a dodgy path when we start assigning specific names other than simply "God", but that is MY personal belief, not yours, and let’s all just leave it at that for today, what do you say?
Almost all of human communication takes place in the form of storytelling, in one shape or another. Unless we are doing something real basic like the weather outside, some form of storytelling takes place. It is how we convey ideas, events, and predictions to one another. It is the manner in which we establish our right or ability to speak on a given topic. It goes so far beyond just simple bragging and becomes the way we actually interact.
Think about this for just a moment: over the years, people have come to me for advice on a wide variety of topics. Now, I do not claim for even a minute to be any great wise sage or anything like that, but I have walked the Earth for a while now, and learned some things. And so, if you were to come to me for advice, here is how it would go: you tell me what is on your mind, I listen, think on it a bit, and tell you a story. The story will be one of two things: a story of when the same thing happened to me or someone I knew, or the story will be about something similar enough to your problem to hopefully make sense. Because advice comes from experience, right? And by my showing my own experience to you, then the potential solution I might offer will make more sense, and be more credible, right?
Ideas are communicated via stories. New thoughts and concepts are put into story form. It is easier to grasp a story where we see the idea in play than simple raw data. In short, it is a big part of the way we communicate, regardless of what language(s) you speak.
Television used to be a story telling medium.
Something, however, has gone horrifically wrong.
Now, I am going to speak exclusively about American TV. Other nations do far better things, ballsier things than we will: in America, the openly gay or bisexual character would be played for either heartrending angst or over the top minstrel-type flamboyance. We would never have the balls for a Captain Jack Harkness, where he is unabashed about his leanings, yet also a leader and an action-type hero. We just wouldn’t.
While American TV has never shied away from the lowest common denominators (jiggly boobs, violence for no reason, and Baywatch), we have often achieved something special. Through stories, the TV could make us think. Remember All In The Family? It would have been enough to paint Archie as a horrid racist, and made America face that, but even as he was, you couldn’t help but feel for the guy, just a blue collar joe seeing his family, his neighborhood, and his world changing, and knowing that he is being left behind. You were shocked at what he said, but still couldn’t help but to sympathize with the guy a little.
M*A*S*H* did the same, made us think through their stories, and so did many others. NYPD Blue, way back when, was like nothing else on earth, and to this day it still isn’t. Rescue Me often comes close to that level of brilliance, largely due to the writing and acting of Denis Leary, who finally gets to show us what he was always capable of.
And there are the ones who do not make it. Firefly, for a perfect example. You cared about these people, characters were well drawn and multi-dimensional, action and sex were not over the top, and they made you feel. It never had a chance. Like a lot of others. Jericho will end up following this same path, a story about the aftermath of nuclear war that to me is really about redemption and strength of family. But you have to stay with Jericho, and follow it, and that requires an attention span, something missing in this country.
Look, too much cleverness has always been a lead sinker for a lot of shows, but what is replacing them is the thing that frightens me so much.
Welcome to the reality show, where Americans can thrill at watching ordinary folk stripped down to their very basest impulses, and turn as vicious and cut throat as we could ask for. People get to screw each other out of anything they can, and we watch it with breathless anticipation, and the advertisers flock to by space on the program. We delight in watching that asshole chef torture his protégés (seeing one of them just say the hell with it and taking a big old Michael Myers-type butcher knife to him, now THAT would be some great TV!), and get o on seeing the almighty Donald say "You’re fired". Ozzy Osbourne, the prince of frigging darkness, became a zoo exhibit. It is all just so sad.
But more than sad, it is an indication of what I feel is our not-too-distant future. Survivor is the modern gladiator game, where we all try to out-fuck one another, as opposed to open bloodshed. But is gladiatorial nonetheless.
The Romans enjoyed a good gladiator show.
Look what happened to them.
Now, I am surely not so arrogant as to honestly believe that my take on the truth is really how it is. I think I am smart enough to know better than that. But when one person tell you his or her frank opinion (and I do tend to be pretty frank), then hopefully someone else will step up and do the very same. And it goes from there, a free exchange of ideas.
Now, before certain of you get all kinds of furious at me for bringing name up, I did not have an intention to make this a religious discussion. Some of you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. Personally, I think we start to take a dodgy path when we start assigning specific names other than simply "God", but that is MY personal belief, not yours, and let’s all just leave it at that for today, what do you say?
Almost all of human communication takes place in the form of storytelling, in one shape or another. Unless we are doing something real basic like the weather outside, some form of storytelling takes place. It is how we convey ideas, events, and predictions to one another. It is the manner in which we establish our right or ability to speak on a given topic. It goes so far beyond just simple bragging and becomes the way we actually interact.
Think about this for just a moment: over the years, people have come to me for advice on a wide variety of topics. Now, I do not claim for even a minute to be any great wise sage or anything like that, but I have walked the Earth for a while now, and learned some things. And so, if you were to come to me for advice, here is how it would go: you tell me what is on your mind, I listen, think on it a bit, and tell you a story. The story will be one of two things: a story of when the same thing happened to me or someone I knew, or the story will be about something similar enough to your problem to hopefully make sense. Because advice comes from experience, right? And by my showing my own experience to you, then the potential solution I might offer will make more sense, and be more credible, right?
Ideas are communicated via stories. New thoughts and concepts are put into story form. It is easier to grasp a story where we see the idea in play than simple raw data. In short, it is a big part of the way we communicate, regardless of what language(s) you speak.
Television used to be a story telling medium.
Something, however, has gone horrifically wrong.
Now, I am going to speak exclusively about American TV. Other nations do far better things, ballsier things than we will: in America, the openly gay or bisexual character would be played for either heartrending angst or over the top minstrel-type flamboyance. We would never have the balls for a Captain Jack Harkness, where he is unabashed about his leanings, yet also a leader and an action-type hero. We just wouldn’t.
While American TV has never shied away from the lowest common denominators (jiggly boobs, violence for no reason, and Baywatch), we have often achieved something special. Through stories, the TV could make us think. Remember All In The Family? It would have been enough to paint Archie as a horrid racist, and made America face that, but even as he was, you couldn’t help but feel for the guy, just a blue collar joe seeing his family, his neighborhood, and his world changing, and knowing that he is being left behind. You were shocked at what he said, but still couldn’t help but to sympathize with the guy a little.
M*A*S*H* did the same, made us think through their stories, and so did many others. NYPD Blue, way back when, was like nothing else on earth, and to this day it still isn’t. Rescue Me often comes close to that level of brilliance, largely due to the writing and acting of Denis Leary, who finally gets to show us what he was always capable of.
And there are the ones who do not make it. Firefly, for a perfect example. You cared about these people, characters were well drawn and multi-dimensional, action and sex were not over the top, and they made you feel. It never had a chance. Like a lot of others. Jericho will end up following this same path, a story about the aftermath of nuclear war that to me is really about redemption and strength of family. But you have to stay with Jericho, and follow it, and that requires an attention span, something missing in this country.
Look, too much cleverness has always been a lead sinker for a lot of shows, but what is replacing them is the thing that frightens me so much.
Welcome to the reality show, where Americans can thrill at watching ordinary folk stripped down to their very basest impulses, and turn as vicious and cut throat as we could ask for. People get to screw each other out of anything they can, and we watch it with breathless anticipation, and the advertisers flock to by space on the program. We delight in watching that asshole chef torture his protégés (seeing one of them just say the hell with it and taking a big old Michael Myers-type butcher knife to him, now THAT would be some great TV!), and get o on seeing the almighty Donald say "You’re fired". Ozzy Osbourne, the prince of frigging darkness, became a zoo exhibit. It is all just so sad.
But more than sad, it is an indication of what I feel is our not-too-distant future. Survivor is the modern gladiator game, where we all try to out-fuck one another, as opposed to open bloodshed. But is gladiatorial nonetheless.
The Romans enjoyed a good gladiator show.
Look what happened to them.
Now, I am surely not so arrogant as to honestly believe that my take on the truth is really how it is. I think I am smart enough to know better than that. But when one person tell you his or her frank opinion (and I do tend to be pretty frank), then hopefully someone else will step up and do the very same. And it goes from there, a free exchange of ideas.
The Ten Commandments
Here is the problem with the Big 10: the ideas were great thousands of years ago, but they have grown somewhat watered down over time. Now, I know, some of you are saying that right is right and wrong is wrong, and I happen to agree with you, to a point, but it is time to re-examine these ten ideas and apply them to our times.Let’s go through them:
· The first four we can eliminate immediately. WORSHIP NO ONE BUT ME falls under the heading of monopoly, KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH is out because half the week will be kept holy, depending on your faith, MAKE NO IDOLS got pissed away a long time ago. Shit, most of Rome would be eliminated by this idea. TAKE NOT MY NAME IN VAIN again suggest arrogance and proprietarianism, which contradicts what the so-called clerics teach. So there is 40% wiped out right there. We are doing some serious damn streamlining here!
· HONOR YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR FATHER Well, what if they are assholes? No, really, think about this for a minute. What if they come from that very still and murky gene pool that should never have been allowed to reproduce. Do I honor them? What if daddy used to rape me, or mommy used to pimp me out to get money for heroin? That's not funny, that’s real. So that one is out, too.
· THOU SHALT NOT KILL Well, the problem with this one is that while it is a very nice notion, but it is more of a suggestion than a Commandment, wouldn’t you say. Don’t kill, unless your church, state, or country tell you that you have to go and get busy with. We won’t eliminate this, but let’s put it to the side, for now, so we can revisit.
· THOU SHALT NOT STEAL This is good, simple and to the point. I like this one, it’s a keeper. The only problem is this: if your church or your country tells you ok to do this in someone else’s country, it stops being theft, and becomes conquering, and occupying.
· THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY this is a tough one, as we all know. It worked fairly well way back when, at a time when 30 was a long life span. Things that were not taken into account when this was written: people will live longer, and have more time to spend together. Thus making this one tougher and tougher. Also, people evolve, from day to day, and they change. They grow apart. And it isn’t because one or the other did something, it just is the way the world moved on.
· THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS this is the best of the lot, in my opinion. Don’t lie. How much simpler can you get? Tell the truth.
· THOU SHALT NOT COVET This is out completely, and why, you ask? Because it goes directly against human nature. It is normal and natural. Someone has more money, more stuff, a nicer car, a nicer home. We won’t get into the spouse thing, just pass that one by. We see the things that we don’t have, and we want them. We want to get these things for ourselves. This is capitalism at its basest root. Without coveting what others have, why would we work harder, produce more, and earn more? What would be the motivation?
Human beings are born with an innate sense of right and wrong, with the exception of those troubled and frightening sorts who are not. We know that sex with a child is wrong. We know that conning someone out of their money and leaving them with nothing is wrong. We know that thinking of ourselves ahead of our children is wrong. We know that war is just flat-out wrong. We do not need a church, state, or government to tell us it is wrong. We do not need outdated and frequently ignored orders to tell us what is wrong.
So I will offer my own set of commandments today, simpler, more modern ideas to help us all in our day to day life:
· THOU SHALT TELL THE TRUTH I told you that one was a keeper.
· THOU SHALT NOT STEAL OR KILL WITHOUT A DAMN GOOD REASON. Defending yourself, defending you family, stealing from hunger, these are damn good reasons. This is left vague for a reason, so that it can be interpreted on a case by case basis.
· THOU SHALT KEEP THY JUDGEMENTS TO THYSELF Don’t ever point a finger of judgement or ridicule at another human being. You don’t live that person’s life, so how can you judge? And really, how close of a look would you like for me to take in your personal closet?
· THOU SHALT NOT USE THE ONES WHO CARE ABOUT THEE if someone really and truly cares about you, and you know it, either accept and treasure that devotion, or cast it away altogether. Don’t use that person when it suits you and not otherwise. Guys, this counts especially for you, with that girl you have all known in your lives who was the fallback, the one you could call after six months of silence, and who would always take you back. The one who was always the guaranteed roll in the hay. Knock that shit off.
· THOU SHALT TRY REAL HARD NOT TO MESS ANYONE’S LIFE UP TOO BADLY. We are going to do it, no matter how hard we try, we are going to hurt people as we sail through our lives. Sometimes it is our own bling carelessness, and sometimes the individual sets themselves up to get hurt, and usually, it is a combination of the two. Try like hell to limit this as much as possible.
· THOU SHALT EXTEND A HELPING HAND WHERE THEY CAN call it karma or whatever, but what comes around does indeed go around. Can I walk through downtown Boston and give money to ever homeless person I see? No, I cannot, or else I would homeless too. But you can still try to do the right thing for someone when the opportunity presents itself, especially when there is no profit in it for you.
· THOU SHALT KEEP THY DICK IN THY PANTS UNLESS INVITED TO TAKE IT OUT Any sex crime, especially one against a child, should be met with a public execution. Period. End of conversation. But this one covers more than just sex crimes. Don’t feed her too many drinks and then give her a hop when she is too drunk to know what is going on. And ladies, this applies to you too. Sex is a wonderful thing, a gesture of love, a way to reproduce, an act of intimacy between two people who genuinely care about each other, and, generally speaking, an all around good time for al involved (if done right, of course). But do it wrong to someone, take from them what they did not want to give to you, and you have just fucked that person up on some level for life. So keep thy zipper closed.
This, to me, is the way I want to live my own life. Do I screw it up? Of course I do, I am only a human, nothing more. But this is the set of ideals, arrived at by reason and logic and the innate sense of right and wrong I was born with, by which I try to steer my ship. And the best part? It leaves my Sunday morning’s free to sleep in.
[Kyrena C.]
Arasou Triggerbang
· The first four we can eliminate immediately. WORSHIP NO ONE BUT ME falls under the heading of monopoly, KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH is out because half the week will be kept holy, depending on your faith, MAKE NO IDOLS got pissed away a long time ago. Shit, most of Rome would be eliminated by this idea. TAKE NOT MY NAME IN VAIN again suggest arrogance and proprietarianism, which contradicts what the so-called clerics teach. So there is 40% wiped out right there. We are doing some serious damn streamlining here!
· HONOR YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR FATHER Well, what if they are assholes? No, really, think about this for a minute. What if they come from that very still and murky gene pool that should never have been allowed to reproduce. Do I honor them? What if daddy used to rape me, or mommy used to pimp me out to get money for heroin? That's not funny, that’s real. So that one is out, too.
· THOU SHALT NOT KILL Well, the problem with this one is that while it is a very nice notion, but it is more of a suggestion than a Commandment, wouldn’t you say. Don’t kill, unless your church, state, or country tell you that you have to go and get busy with. We won’t eliminate this, but let’s put it to the side, for now, so we can revisit.
· THOU SHALT NOT STEAL This is good, simple and to the point. I like this one, it’s a keeper. The only problem is this: if your church or your country tells you ok to do this in someone else’s country, it stops being theft, and becomes conquering, and occupying.
· THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY this is a tough one, as we all know. It worked fairly well way back when, at a time when 30 was a long life span. Things that were not taken into account when this was written: people will live longer, and have more time to spend together. Thus making this one tougher and tougher. Also, people evolve, from day to day, and they change. They grow apart. And it isn’t because one or the other did something, it just is the way the world moved on.
· THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS this is the best of the lot, in my opinion. Don’t lie. How much simpler can you get? Tell the truth.
· THOU SHALT NOT COVET This is out completely, and why, you ask? Because it goes directly against human nature. It is normal and natural. Someone has more money, more stuff, a nicer car, a nicer home. We won’t get into the spouse thing, just pass that one by. We see the things that we don’t have, and we want them. We want to get these things for ourselves. This is capitalism at its basest root. Without coveting what others have, why would we work harder, produce more, and earn more? What would be the motivation?
Human beings are born with an innate sense of right and wrong, with the exception of those troubled and frightening sorts who are not. We know that sex with a child is wrong. We know that conning someone out of their money and leaving them with nothing is wrong. We know that thinking of ourselves ahead of our children is wrong. We know that war is just flat-out wrong. We do not need a church, state, or government to tell us it is wrong. We do not need outdated and frequently ignored orders to tell us what is wrong.
So I will offer my own set of commandments today, simpler, more modern ideas to help us all in our day to day life:
· THOU SHALT TELL THE TRUTH I told you that one was a keeper.
· THOU SHALT NOT STEAL OR KILL WITHOUT A DAMN GOOD REASON. Defending yourself, defending you family, stealing from hunger, these are damn good reasons. This is left vague for a reason, so that it can be interpreted on a case by case basis.
· THOU SHALT KEEP THY JUDGEMENTS TO THYSELF Don’t ever point a finger of judgement or ridicule at another human being. You don’t live that person’s life, so how can you judge? And really, how close of a look would you like for me to take in your personal closet?
· THOU SHALT NOT USE THE ONES WHO CARE ABOUT THEE if someone really and truly cares about you, and you know it, either accept and treasure that devotion, or cast it away altogether. Don’t use that person when it suits you and not otherwise. Guys, this counts especially for you, with that girl you have all known in your lives who was the fallback, the one you could call after six months of silence, and who would always take you back. The one who was always the guaranteed roll in the hay. Knock that shit off.
· THOU SHALT TRY REAL HARD NOT TO MESS ANYONE’S LIFE UP TOO BADLY. We are going to do it, no matter how hard we try, we are going to hurt people as we sail through our lives. Sometimes it is our own bling carelessness, and sometimes the individual sets themselves up to get hurt, and usually, it is a combination of the two. Try like hell to limit this as much as possible.
· THOU SHALT EXTEND A HELPING HAND WHERE THEY CAN call it karma or whatever, but what comes around does indeed go around. Can I walk through downtown Boston and give money to ever homeless person I see? No, I cannot, or else I would homeless too. But you can still try to do the right thing for someone when the opportunity presents itself, especially when there is no profit in it for you.
· THOU SHALT KEEP THY DICK IN THY PANTS UNLESS INVITED TO TAKE IT OUT Any sex crime, especially one against a child, should be met with a public execution. Period. End of conversation. But this one covers more than just sex crimes. Don’t feed her too many drinks and then give her a hop when she is too drunk to know what is going on. And ladies, this applies to you too. Sex is a wonderful thing, a gesture of love, a way to reproduce, an act of intimacy between two people who genuinely care about each other, and, generally speaking, an all around good time for al involved (if done right, of course). But do it wrong to someone, take from them what they did not want to give to you, and you have just fucked that person up on some level for life. So keep thy zipper closed.
This, to me, is the way I want to live my own life. Do I screw it up? Of course I do, I am only a human, nothing more. But this is the set of ideals, arrived at by reason and logic and the innate sense of right and wrong I was born with, by which I try to steer my ship. And the best part? It leaves my Sunday morning’s free to sleep in.
[Kyrena C.]
Arasou Triggerbang
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