this land is your land...

Death

Destruction

Doomsday arrived

Mourning

Madness

Masochistic pride

Fear

Fallacy

Fleeting unity

Self

Silence

Stifled democracy

I wonder why it takes tragedy to bring people together here in the United States. And even then, tragedy does not always lead to unity, at least not to the extent you’d expect. Society’s selfish way of life, the consequence of technology and all the *wonderful* things that have been created over time, tends to get in the way of societal harmony.

Imagine for a moment our love of space… dreams of the bigger home, the big yard, the storage areas, the shed, the attic, the extra-roomy SUV. While we define space as a luxury, it truly is a safety feature for our minds, a barrier from the outside world. The more space we have surrounding us, the harder it is for anyone to infiltrate or break through, and so we experience a feeling of security.

Of course space also gives us pleasure because it’s more space to fill. To fill with all the goodies that come along with our culture, material goods that clutter our minds with anxieties and perpetuate our world of wants. Ah yes, the good ol’ US of A.

(http://www.americanframe.com/gallery/artgallery/itemthumbnails/AS0002449.jpg... artwork entitled "Liberty's Children"; our prompt for Sacred Writing today)

contemplations of a grown up mind

(just a random storystart, probably the beginning of a fictional piece told from a middle-aged perspective...any ideas on how i can manuever into an actual story?)

I miss the days when reality was something abstract; when I didn’t contemplate what could go wrong, or what would go wrong, or what had already gone wrong. I miss the blind naïveté that led me through life, when I could play games in the backseat of the car unaware that it was going twenty miles over the speed limit or I could say goodbye without worrying I wouldn’t be back. I can’t name the exact moment when maturity overtook me, so I have the feeling it was a gradual process, slowly eating away at the innocence of youth. My smile used to be the light at the end of the tunnel, the bright spot in others’ cloudy days, the optimistic glow settling on the horizon. And it would be accompanied by raucous laughter, as I childishly entertained the masses. Or maybe my memories have created this surreal existence of a positive me, filled with infectious happiness.

Damn the passage of time. Common sense and worldly knowledge make a damaging combination. I feel guilty to be wishing ignorance into my life, but it would certainly make things easier. I guess that’s why people say, “Ignorance is bliss.” Sometimes I try to pretend that I’m back in my old mind, and it will work for a weekend or a party night, but I always end up with my more mature mind wrestling for control.