Why I Wrote This Lead – To amuse myself. You were warned. You stay because you want. Because you want, you will. Who are you anyway? You are not a third party and certainly not disinterested. If you can’t honor the terms of this estrangement, follow someone else.
Involuntary Iconoclast – “I couldn’t find meaning in believing until I looked. I’m not alone, just not at attention.” How could the loneliest member feel so overwhelmed? How could the soul be stolen if it does not exist? To pay attention: The eye focuses at the expense of periphery; the ear behaves at the expense of taste; the tongue ties at the expense of passage; nostrils singed of desperation, the insensitive grope – emphatically. Empathy squints.
I Object! – What objectifies? The tools one surrounds oneself with – toys, if one prefers. Once imagination contracted the possibility that you could be an object – had enough reason – what follows is, at best, a game of chicken. Leap of faith? Have you not yet gotten over the embarrassment of making something more meaningful than it was the first time? What drafts creation? Animism would be more attractive if what echoed wasn’t so hollow; silence orchestrates the self with a conflict in refrain! Lifting material spirits taxes one unjustly, more so if there is nothing to raise. Honesty is the red light signaling someone is home when I visit; the red flag that teases my headwinds. When you are too afraid to try, I shoulder that doubt; commitment is a shared burden and I refuse to work for less. The crux of empathy is that one begins to see what the other does not; creeping pity strangles even the semblance of a relationship before sympathy can blossom. The abject subject here is who is human.
What to Emphasize – When surrounded by women without expression; when curiosity is cautioned as probe; when the shy clam up at a glance; when subtly prefers sensitivity over sensation; when structure damns the flow; when love sickens more than seclusion; when romance smothers intimacy in its infancy – idol hands cannot hold a candle.
Master the Mustache – Here’s to the Antichrist, the prophet with human motives, the savior of more than one self, the leader who gave no orders, the commander of his own trope, the martyr who chose discipline. Appreciation is in season! Join me in this dance of graves! Let me show you a number you’ve never seen! Finally, Man has style again! Finally, word’s meaning speaks unobscured! Finally, something more to warm my long treks, a critique for my cigarette! Heart and soul are one in those who make the out-fit. With imagination, such a great icon continues to grow long after what murmurs has (or have?) given up the ghost.
Tease to Please, Pleased to Tease – I'll show my belly if you show me yours. Take no offense, I'm not flirting - or perhaps I am, but can't imagine otherwise - I just find who resides in your head to be inseparable from your body. Sex is labor without a shared sense of humor; a balanced push back to keep us from the cliff’s edge. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, it’s best to first find out how we handle criticism. Can’t we act our age? Would we really need to start from first base? Fine, “There you are! I see you! Oh, where’d you go? Ha, there you are again! I see you, too!” Is it wrong of me to approach maturity as a game? Have a better way to learn? I’m all ears. Amuse me. Better yet, keep up.
Bodily Premonitions – ‘It’s not what you don’t know that condemns, nor what you believe without reason, it’s what you’ve preached.’ ‘The value of your sacrifice anticipates a crowd; your pride precipitates feedback.’
Original Sin – Creation is not production; originality follows genesis. Procreation is not reproduction; fidelity conditions recreation.
Down and Away – The secret to rearing girls; actions have consequences.
The Floor Is Lava – The key to raising boys; words have meaning.
Live and Learn – Contradiction occurs only when growth changes direction or halts altogether.
Flying Frogs – It’s not the leap that betrays, it’s the clucking; cocks can’t remain airborne either.
Reasoned Meat – Ration reasoning and mind the exits, spoilage cannot escape taste for long.
Stove Tops – Some like it hot; love is a game of forget me not. One would think what survives a fire is calloused enough for another. Was it the smell that betrayed something was off? Or the lack of warmth?
Casual Causality – Rewarded without effort? By whom? Why? Don’t doubt it, you’re worth a carrot. “What manners! I can’t hear myself think! Weren’t you trained proper?”
Imaginary Friends – Is acquaintance bought, borrowed, bred, birthed or followed?
Liberally Literal – Should one tell you “words matter”, don’t just take their word for it. They have, without asking, forced a weapon on you. Cannibals at heart, the self-proclaimed open-minded want nothing more than to be full of themselves, but their eyes are bigger than their stomachs – “Stomachs don’t actually shrink, it merely feels like it. Just so you know!” To converse is to differ. Tonal shift only persuades those who want change. “Pardon me, condemnation is not engagement. What’s next, ‘I told you so’?”
What Does the Cow Say? – “The man wins when the woman conceives, the woman wins in marriage.” Has this ever been uttered without at least one squeal? Should the reverse ring true, apprehension merely qualifies the bleat. If one couldn’t give attention to their partner, how could either afford a child? Cows bred in captivity fare no better than pandas; the black and white confusing novelty and originality. “Produce!” says the State. “Consume!” says Society, with the same frequency. What is heard? “What are the cows saying?”
Name-Calling Nitwits – Associating what is seen or what is envisioned? Describing or ascribing? Identifying or identifying with? Cutting corners and checking boxes to master reality? What does that make reality? Found a quantity worth categorizing? Better own it! Afraid projection won’t stick? Why choose adhesive over a permanent marker to obsess over? If affection depends on what one is called, one is not distinguished enough for a proper name. The ego too fragile to be handled critically has no right being proud of vulnerability. The arrogance needed to spin gold from ethereal lead dwarfs the irony that no tolerance has grown from environmental exposure. Only the sanctioned deviants are allowed to express themselves? – “Blessed are the meek that make me look strong.” Labels, like all stereotypes, exist for a reason: as outline, not definition; as signal, not noise; as pointer, not destiny – monotony is merely a hill in the midst of such range. Abstraction obliterates solidarity for conformity’s sake.
Words in Sheep's Clothing – The most charming facet of silence is the lack of promise. What better way to spoil what’s “in” than to wear it thin?
The Sound of Violence – “Oh, how the void howls! Why are these echoes growing louder?” To not question is to not listen; to not speak honestly is to not notice.
The Eternal Echo of Tuning Forks – The uniform is – are – never more empty than when dressed. Medals jingle, metal resonates. Pitch will be brought to heel. Stay tuned.
The Neurotic's Cure – Kill yourself. Over and over. To the bone! Practice makes perfect! How clever it would be if eroticism was the treatment. Stop getting ahead of yourself! Feel the semi-colon! This is no jest ;).
Life Guards – Ignore the signs and stay your breath, the lonesome flotsam will pass. Careful, those who have lived least cling tightest. Stakes cannot be placed on a river, even if trauma halts the flow. If you’re going to jump, splash; those afraid of thirst cannot be made to last.
On Cockroaches – Stop looking up! The edge approaches! The pressure one feels is on all sides – the separation of self from others, the inner tension of outer dimensions, the ideal dealing in realities, the dream had with another eye, the wish one hopes never comes true. If strength is a measure of burden, what has yet to lift off? What is one more step to those who have lived through so much?
Paraphrasing Sisyphus – One searches for meaning in others to give creation another sense; to research is to echo. Discovery and origination are of one tongue until language rolls off.
Saving Face – Poets expire the quickest. Or was it dentists? An animal lover informed me it was vets. If masks are checked at the exit, why so worried who left the party first?
What Do Clowns Fear? – “When I clap, they clap. When I stand, they stand. When I laugh, they laugh. Is there anything more frightening?” Only if the reaction is nothing more. Better hope embarrassment follows.
Reading People – ‘It didn’t elicit affection, which means I failed. Because I know that’s not true, I must question...’ How could one know humanity without the humanities? What is empathy without imagination? How could the articulations of the heart be less interesting? “...Forgive me if I change tact, your expression fails to match your words. Would you rather be alone?” I’m going to find out who you are, whether you’re present or not, whether or not I want to. Would our desire to be alone coincide enough to relate?
Media Literacy is Literacy - If you weren't made to think, it's not literature. If you weren't lead to question, it's not of good faith. If you weren't moved to act, it's not understood. If you aren’t wrong, why avoid the critics? How does one possess a fact? How does one relate objective? How does this opinion matter? Wait... how is literacy possible without a medium? Why can't I get hold of Understanding Media? Did it really sell out? Why does this new-fangled device insist I might not be human?
Unraveling Mortal Coils – Ego asks “To pronounce?”; conscience asks “To judge?”; consciousness asks “Who else?”; character asks “What right?”; imagination asks “Which sense?”; understanding asks “Since when?”; love asks “How long?”; madness asks “This far?” To think, or not to think, is not the question becoming of animals; to be, or not to be, is not a question marked. “Yeah, but, what does sacrifice silence?”
“The Center Cannot Hold” – How would one know? Where, exactly, is the center? Have you been to the other side? How did you arrive at such all-encompassing vantage? Centralization is a process; Pi has yet to be calculated.
What Remains – If evil exists, is it not a bad idea to think of it as absolute? Nothing damns quite like the belief one can be saved without sacrifice.
Self-Fulfilling Propositions – To sell a solution is to purchase a problem; responsibility discounted, accountability refactored.
Junkmail – Pity is love unsolicited; without proper protection, what else is lost?
The Hunter’s Retreat – “Look! These here no longer contest dominance, they no longer play! Without natural weapons, without competition, these brutes only use clubs and big sticks. There is no game to be found round these parts.” Was sport always this involved? When alienation appeals to the alien, what wants to be found? Those who lose forest for trees understand better what is lost.
In Defense of Castles – No matter the number of engineers buried in your secret escape, security is not yours until the next update.
In Asses – Kings and queens sit with their asses or on their asses? Translation error or translator? Either way, error is hidden – behind. Only under squatters has a bottomless pit lacked space to breathe. When a posteriori conclusions are wiped away, there’s only one thing censors can be full of. Admirers are not in it for decency, but the promise of another head-sized hole.