themisanthropicoptimist.com

“The world is like a ride at an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real, because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly colored and it’s very loud. And it’s fun, for a while.

Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: ‘Is this real? Or is this just a ride?’ And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and they say ‘Hey! Don’t worry, don’t be afraid – ever – because… this is just a ride.’ And we kill those people.
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Service without a Smile

I am supposed to be silent and compliant. We are not to complain, ever. But somehow, it is okay for them to do so. Being vocal and outspoken, seems to be ingrained into my very soul; I can not, not do it. Yet, I am told to stop almost on a daily basis. By friends, family, co-workers and even complete strangers; they all tell me to stop complaining. Somehow, they are permitted to complain to me about my so-called complaining and it is righteous and justified? So, I stand there mystified.
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~ Photograph by my better half

The World Moves On

Like a bonfire lighting up the night time sky
In the distance I spot the all Seeing Eye
Stained crimson, hanging there not moving or blinking
Is it all for nothing, I ponder as my heart begins sinking

Miles crossed with countless more yet to go
Will we reach our destination, this I do not know?
Four became two as they are slowly falling
Doing fates work, though they tried refusing its calling

Out of the caves but we remain in the dark
Saving the world is our overwhelming task; like Noah and his ark
Is it all too late; do we ever make a small dent?
Waking one morning to silence, wondering where the world has went

Find me the field of red roses
Not knowing the significance that it poses
Behemoth before me, the déjà vu of its depth and power
Full circle once more; I stand tall and hastily enter the dark tower . . .

~BP Smith 2007

Serenity, I do not like you. No, not the word but the short prose piece. I found a little gem that I will add to my list of mantra’s and it is the exact opposite of said poem/prose. I do not wish to be granted wisdom of this kind, to me it is giving up and not in a good way. So, it will now read as follows:
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The bombs fell every day for years, or so it seemed. It may have been only a few seconds but it sure as hell felt like years. There was no nuclear winter; no fallout shelters could protect the masses from these bombs. Hell, you couldn’t even see the bombs because they weren’t visible to the naked eye. And what does “naked eye” mean anyway since I do not put clothes on my eyeballs, it sounds preposterous.

They were what we called before the war: “The Id-bomb”. Of course this is abbreviated for the grammatically challenged society in which we now live; they were, in a non-scientific term, merely referred to as “The Idiot Bomb”. Why they were called bombs at all escapes me since I already stated that they weren’t visible. Not only were they not visible, they weren’t even real; just a construct on some raving madman’s warped mind is all.

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~ Photograph by ~ BP Smith

I wanted to quote Orwell because he is relevant but prosaic at the same time, so I will not be using Orwell at this time. Instead I will start with this quote from a movie: “If you build it . . . he will come.” So, it may or may not be obvious that this is from the movie Field of Dreams, since most people have forgotten that this is the actual line. Are you cocking your head a little, wondering what the hell I am talking about? You see, most people are use to hearing/reading this phrase here, “If you build it . . . they will come”, though that is NOT the line from the movie at all.
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This is only a test.
Written by my better half, spoken by me.
Give a listen.

In sad news, actor David Carradine, was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok. It is believed at this time that it was suicide but I wouldn’t rule out Black Mamba. But in all seriousness, I despise when the MSM release such vague and dubious press information.

We have lost yet another great actor and if the cause is true one must wonder why. From Kung-Fu to Kill Bill, David has done and seen it all.

Meanwhile:

“Help, help, we’re being repressed!”

20 years later and an entire generation of Chinese have grown up with little information of the events. The more things change, the more they stay fucked up. Growing up with skewed politics in favor of the slippery slope that is Nationalism. Furthermore, I am pretty sure that the official number of deaths and injured was never reported. Surprised?

~BPSmith

Life has been happening and things twist and turn, for better or worse, we keep spinning slowly around and around on life’s carousel.  I am lucky enough to not only be on the horse but one of the cool ponies that go up and down as well.  As I write this, I wonder if that even meant anything at all or is it just me, once again enjoying the sound of my own voice in my head?

Now, back to Marks’ statement: “Living ain’t hard, it’s just not easy”:

Being a child of the 70′s and 80′s I was witness to drastic advances in pretty much everything imaginable.  I mean, every generation has had this but I think that the last 30 years has seen leaps and bounds in a magnitude that not other generation before had witnessed.  I want to stay with technological items in this post, I think.  Things, in theory, inanimate, that are or were supposed to make our lives easier; perhaps too easy.  Obviously, I am no enemy to these gizmo’s and gadgets but there are limits, which a lot of us seem to have forgotten.

If I follow you down the highway on your road trip to wherever you are going, what will be left to say when you reach your final destination?  It was a three hour drive and for those three hours, you were on the phone for 2.5!  What, pray tell, was so damn important that it could not wait until you got there?  Or were you, in fact, speaking to someone else the whole time? I am sorry but to me that comes off as a little self-important and egotistical and a bunch of other big words mixed in.

Can your children do math without a calculator?  Can they add in their heads at all?  Why can’t the cashier behind the register, count out my change without having to look at the monitor screen?  I understand that we come up with better way to do things but I actually think “better”, is the wrong word.  Maybe I should just use, “easier” instead because it does seem more fitting.  We create anything and everything to make our lives more convenient; the less we have to do the better, right?

I think we’ve gone and screwed the whole thing up yet again.  Once more, we are on the edge of the abyss, an abyss that we ourselves have created and we’re not sure if we can make it over or plunge into the darkness forever.  Haven’t we done the exact opposite of what was intended?  While trying to “better” our existence, we have actually made it worse.  Trying to make life a little (a lot) easier, we have made it harder. 

How distant we have become, with not only society as a whole but ourselves as well.  I am scared of myself so I will take the pill that they just advertised on the television for that must be what is wrong with me, why else would I feel this way?  I call it, “Afraid to be alone in your own mind syndrome”.  We have made ourselves obsolete and we do not even know it yet; we’ve run out a terabytes and there is nowhere else to go but in.

I am not sure if it is irony or not but we talk on cells phone nonstop, yet we have lost the ability to communicate with one another.  Nothing more than a hollow: “How was your day”, or “Have a good one.”  Have a good one what, a case of herpes and do you really care about my day?  No, no I do not think that you do.  We are to self-absorbed in our own sitcoms that all we can think about is turning the ignition and speeding on down the highway.  To where though, to where?

No where.  We are on that road and unlike most of our roads; this one has been paved very, very well. . .

Until next time and until I figure it all out. . .

~BP Smith