You keep asking “How?”
As if there’s some sort of form or pattern
To self-expression
The truth is that,
Even in spite of your continued defiance of reality
And your inability to live in a world not governed by comfort
You have forgotten how to feel.
The words on the page
Are ill equipped to express
The sentiments like worms
Swimming through my noodle
Digesting my consciousness
Expelling de-composite
“Maybe I’m just a bad friend,” she said. ” Maybe the only way a person can be a good friend is to give themselves up completely and lose themselves.”
Such wisdom has since left her. Foolishness has overtaken her and Self reigns supreme over her consciousness—what little is left.
Those words, however, ring no less true. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Truly, the epitome of love is self-sacrifice, to give up the self, to lose the self. It is to simply say, “Your desires, your needs, your life, your very being, and everything about you are more important than mine.”
Yes, only when we submit to true love can we understand what it is to truly live. Only then can we experience relationships in the beauty and infinite potential for which we were created. When we submit to love, we submit to the divine purpose of all humanity. What could go wrong?
We speak of “in love” abstractly
As an independent entity
The omnipotent feeling
But in reality, such emotional instability is futility
Shake the Etch-A-Sketch to undo your noodle
“In love” is a state of being
Dive into the ocean to breathe more clearly than you ever did on land
Simultaneously inhale and exhale
Exchange life for life
Understand:
“A fish swims in the sea while the sea is, in a certain sense, contained within the fish.”
Oh, who am I to think
I can move through love and love not move through me?
Shake the Etch-A-Sketch to undo your noodle
“In love” is a state of being
In love is a state of being.
Love is being.
Be in love.
Be love.
Be selflessness.
Be humility
Be peace.
Be justice.
Be honor
Be mercy.
Be patience.
Be generosity.
Be trustworthiness.
Be compassion.
Be (self)respect
Be forgiveness
Be self-control
Be empathy
Be honesty
Be positivism
Be foundational
Unshakable
Unmistakabl-y a child of the Kingdom
Shake the Etch-A-Sketch to undo your noodle
“In love” is the one true state of human being
“A head nods as if to clear the last image from an Etch-A-Sketch.”
As if to replace it with the image of YAH
“Recite and rewrite dictionary definitions of nothingness with metaphysical significance.”
Consider the significance of the metaphysical
Make use of consciousness beyond subconscious accidents
(un)Conscious impotence
Make use of intent
Take two cents from everyone you meet and retire rich with more to leave for our kids than time and money
Constantly on the rise, yet constantly waning
While faith, hope, and love remain unchanging
Grace and peace flow from (th)a steady stream
While sex, drugs, and CEOs rock out somewhere in between
Life and death molehill peaks
A fly’s lifespan—two whole weeks
Are we any less mortal?
(too wholly weak)
Then let us rest in the eternal
If time is money, let us grow tax free like an IRA
Sleep in the sea, not confined in a grave
Flow with deep oceanic currents
Forget the surface and the waves and the sharks and the babes and the birds of prey
And all else which distracts from:
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, trustworthiness, humility and self-control
Life’s an Etch-A-Sketch
Yours is one noodle that can be undid
Insanity exists on the extremes of the acceptance of one’s perceived reality. One must always take care to not accept too much or too little.
“Wise and cynical”
Plath used that phrase as if it was a given, as if those two words naturally belonged together. Wisdom and cynicism. Brother and sister, they are. Two peas in a pos. Inseparable as a teenage boy from the girl he loves.
Perhaps they are. “Ignorance is bliss,” right? “With much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief,” wrote The Teacher.
After all, how can one, having risen above the foolishness of conventional thinking, look then at the intellectual and spiritual abyss that is humanity and see anything in which to find joy?
It used to be that I could see the budge of new life in a woman and could find nothing but joy. “Oh, the potential!” I would think. These days, however, I find nothing but sorrow. “There’s another one for the wolves,” I say. “Another ear to be tagged by the farmer. Another piece of meat to be herded to the slaughterhouse. Stripped of its life, stripped of its guts, stripped of its bones, it will be just another soulless slab of steak to be consumed by the ever-hungering King of Earth. Self-service and his queen, Greed, demand a never-ending flow of flesh. And they’ll get it.”
Yes, “every day I go to school and study humans,” and the more I learn, the more I mourn for them. Standing in the oasis, I couldn’t see the desert for the trees. But from the mountain top, I survey that very same landscape and see nothing but a barren wasteland devoid of any life. Sand here and sand there. Incalculable numbers who’s sole purpose is to be blown about by the wind. Today they form a dune here and a hill there simply because the wind so wills it. But tomorrow there will be a different wind and all the work of the former will be lost and no one will know the difference.
The wise, then, will still watch from the mountaintop with tear filled eyes as the whole world goes to Sheol in a hand basket. Powerless to change the unwilling and unknowing masses, they will exclaim forever,
“VANITY! VANITY! ALL IS VANITY!”
Why is it that people put this “in love” on such a high pedestal? They worship it as if it’s some sort of god, as if nothing else matters except that “in love” gets its way, as if everything somehow boils down to this one concept. Even YAH Himself does not rank so high on their scale of relevance.
Sometimes I wonder do people really believe this bull. Then I answer my own question; no, of course they don’t. And I’d like some of those poor impressionable souls who think they do to consider what they would believe if they had to live on the receiving end of the ill effects of such a superficial, self-centered, arbitrarily generated (I’m sorry. “Socially evolved.” Sometimes I forget that popularity equals truth-value and that the western world is all of the world which truly exists.) philosophy.
No, really. What would your reaction be if it was your other half (and yes, folks, “the two shall be one” was not a metaphor. Yes, folks, an eternal union is just that, two things becoming one thing forever. And yes, folks, He was sober when He decided on multiple genders.) who decided that some (rather inconsistent) feelings were more important than you. Imagine, for a moment, that, as you near your tenth anniversary with that special someone and you prepare to celebrate with the whole family – you have you, your love, and your three young children – you come home one day to find that he or she is “in love” (and maybe fore dramatic effect, we’ll add “in bed”) with the secretary.
How do you react? Is it, “You’re ‘in love.’ What else matters?” Or maybe it’s, “Just follow your heart.” Or, “Just do whatever feels right.” Or, “Do whatever makes you happy.”
Nah, my guess is that it would be a little more along the lines of, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? What do you mean you ‘felt like it’? Where’s your self respect? Where’s your honor? Where’s your sense of responsibility? You ‘feel like it’! Well, guess what, there are more important things than feelings. Feelings change like the wind but you exercise self-control. Now quit acting like a preteen little girl, grow up, and get that home wrecker out of my house. Then we can talk about your feelings (which are important) and learn what we can change to get them back on track.”
Now you might no use so many words. A simple “Screw you!” and fists of fury might be the language in which you choose to speak. Nonetheless, when translated, you’ve said the same thing. You have certainly not said, “Do what feels right.” You have certainly abandoned the very thing you were so sure of a few moments ago.
Yeah, we can pretend but we all know that there are many things infinitely more important than “in love”. Christ beats “in love”. Other people beat “in love”. Respect, honor, responsibility, truth, peace, etc. beat “in love”. LOVE beats “in love”!
I pity the one who would deny his children or his friends, his dreams, his parents, or anything else of significance in order to acknowledge such a fleeting instability as that. More than I pity him, I fear him. He will – and I say this with the certainty of a mountain’s resting place – undoubtedly cause more unhappiness in his lifetime than can ever be caused by his learning to control and interpret his feelings and to act on what is solid, what is eternal, and what is revered by all wise men – TRUTH.
I find enlightenment through meditation on verbs I spit. Rewrite and recite dictionary definitions of nothingness with metaphysical significance. Quote with the voice of God the prophet’s word and watch reality imitate it. Reclaim my domain trough eminence. Spiritual niggers come against. I spit lyrical mace in their face and brush that devil off my shoulder like he comes in jest. Toss taunts and tests. “Is that your best?” And I won’t rest until Each One Teach One reach some. Truth home come. Youth catch on, latch on, jump the wagon wall and ride on into the future. Dawn of Resurrection Kingdom come.
(What black man doesn’t enjoy frequent meditation on scripture and poetry…and fried chicken?)
1. Buy yourself something nice.
2. Don’t spend it all in one place.
Same list as always.
This year, we’re going to try something a little different. You’re all getting presents. I know this. I don’t even celebrate Christmas and I get presents every year. We call this the “season for giving” except we all get. Now, I know that you gave her a porcelain duck and he gave you a sweater and she gave him socks, but, in the end, don’t we all come out even?
I give to you and you give to me and neither of us ever really has to give anything. It all works out. Well, if that’s your “season of giving,” then “bah-hum-bug” indeed! Let’s start a new trend. We won’t change the world, but we can change our world. We can impact the lives of those around us.
Your instructions are as follows:
1. At least 20% of your giving (as determined by monetary value) will be to people (or a person) who hate(s) you. No one hates you? Then people who just don’t like you. Everyone likes you? Then people who you would not normally give to.
Why? Because you’re not all that good. So you give to those who are closest to you. Who doesn’t? Name the most selfish, self-centered, uncaring person you know. Even that person gives to those who are closest to them. I’m asking you to take it a step further. I’m asking you to rise above the standard set by the rest of society and give, no only of your wallet, but of yourself.
2. At least 50% of what you receive (as determined by monetary value), you will give to people (or a person) who need it more than you do. If the gifts which you receive are not of a nature which would benefit such a person (i.e. a sweater with your name engraved on it, a car, or something with sentimental value) you may exchange the gift for the value of the gift. That is to say that if, for instance, you get that sweater and that is your only gift, you may keep the sweater and give the Rescue Mission or Feed the Children or the single mom down the street (or maybe your own) half the value of the sweater in cash or another gift. (You can even ask for receipts for all your gifts so that you can exchange or return them if necessary. I am sure no one would mind or be offended, especially if you explain why.)
Why? Because you’re not all that good. So you give. Who doesn’t? Everyone gives on Christmas. What makes you so special because you do what every other human being in your world is doing? I’m asking you to take it a step further. I’m asking you to rise above the standard set by the rest of society and give, no only of your wallet, but of yourself.
Trust me, folks. It’s not the end of the world. It’s only the beginning.
And what a world it would be if this was the standard for all four seasons.