What do you do when your dreams are nowhere in sight? How do you resist the temptation to settle for what's in front of you, rather than holding out for what's inside of you? I'm struggling with that in a big way. Are you? It's a colossal obstacle that you, me and everyone else has to learn to overcome, but it sure is a bitch. "Hope deferred makes a heart sick..." (I think that's the quote).
My heart is sick. It's addicted to the quick fix. Like a heroin addict who'll give anything just to lick the spoon. It's an awful world we live in. All the messages, self-evident and subliminal, are negative. How to resist the avalanche of advertising and negative messages designed to ignite the consumer in us....THAT is the question.
I'm still working on an answer. Or maybe I just need to understand the question better......
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
What Happened?
I guess the title says it all. To quote a not-famous, phony DJ: "There's something rank in the air."
I'll get right to the point: What the blazes went down in the past 20 years that made antidepressants the norm, Psychiatrists rich and the "Self-Help" section of the bookstore THE largest section IN the bookstore?? When I was a kid, it was the smallest by far. Nobody had even heard of "Prozac", "Zoloft" or any other such drugs. Kids didn't come to school with guns and mow down dozens of anonymous (for the most part) schoolmates either.
Something strange happened over the past score years, something we haven't quite put our collective finger on. I have a few hunches, but I won't bend your ear or strain your eyes gassing off all my pet theories. That gets old quick; the whole "Disgruntled-citizen-spewing-forth-about-all-the-ills-and-evils-of-society" angle. It's a tired angle to come from. Jadedness or faux-jadedness. It's either a pose or- more often than not- a copout. I'd like to avoid both for now if that's all right with you. I say "you" under the assumption/presumption that there's someone out there somewhere that will someday give a damn enough to bother to read what a stranger like me has to say.
Whatever happens, I think you and I can agree that we're living in some interesting times. Strange and somewhat devoid of originality (sans a Black President of the U.S.), but interesting nonetheless. Tighten up your bootstraps, turn the lights down low and don't breathe too heavily. It's going to be a bumpy night.
(See? I told you there was a lack of originality going around).
I'll get right to the point: What the blazes went down in the past 20 years that made antidepressants the norm, Psychiatrists rich and the "Self-Help" section of the bookstore THE largest section IN the bookstore?? When I was a kid, it was the smallest by far. Nobody had even heard of "Prozac", "Zoloft" or any other such drugs. Kids didn't come to school with guns and mow down dozens of anonymous (for the most part) schoolmates either.
Something strange happened over the past score years, something we haven't quite put our collective finger on. I have a few hunches, but I won't bend your ear or strain your eyes gassing off all my pet theories. That gets old quick; the whole "Disgruntled-citizen-spewing-forth-about-all-the-ills-and-evils-of-society" angle. It's a tired angle to come from. Jadedness or faux-jadedness. It's either a pose or- more often than not- a copout. I'd like to avoid both for now if that's all right with you. I say "you" under the assumption/presumption that there's someone out there somewhere that will someday give a damn enough to bother to read what a stranger like me has to say.
Whatever happens, I think you and I can agree that we're living in some interesting times. Strange and somewhat devoid of originality (sans a Black President of the U.S.), but interesting nonetheless. Tighten up your bootstraps, turn the lights down low and don't breathe too heavily. It's going to be a bumpy night.
(See? I told you there was a lack of originality going around).
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