Crossing the Line – Nothing gets a point across the greatest of distances like a dash – pulling a paradox presupposes an opinion to compare itself to along a straight line.
En Garde! - There are only three personality types, which correspond to one’s persuasion.
I Thought I Knew – What is it called to increase one’s sensitivity tolerance without developing callouses or losing gains?
To Those I’ve Hurt – I ask if you form an opinion of me, put as much effort into it as I do of you. If I didn’t do for you what I wish someone would do for me, I’d be indifferent. At what point will you take responsibility for not knowing how much I hold back? If you don’t like what I like about you, that’s on you. Get over yourself. Perhaps, then, you will let me love you and maybe even be loved, too.
I Want to Know – It is immediately obvious to me when a woman is jealous of another woman, but I’m almost always the last to notice when a man is jealous of another man. Then again, no man in my life has been worth the attention it took to test his advice. Is there a woman out there who feels the same of her own sex?
Leg Work – I read feminist literature because the women in my life don’t. What they do read is “not safe for work” and seems to directly undermine not only a man’s chance to get to know them better, but also their chances for more fruitful labor. Well, who could blame them? Who would blame them? Not me, I learned my lesson and get my work out just trying to read them. To criticize only the women wouldn’t be fair, the men in my life don’t read anything either but tape measures and mixed signals.
Faded Blue Jeans – When a woman says she just wants a man who will listen to her without trying to fix her problems, what she’s after is a thing she can talk to without having to think for herself. How would I know if she doesn’t do this already when I’m not around? I think deep down such a woman is just jealous she can’t say, “No one understands us, do they Dick?” without lying.
And She’s Older! – What is this man’s most terrifying prospect? A woman who turns out not to be a woman! That is, a girl! Ahhh! Better play it safe, pursue more experienced game – a woman who knows what she wants without an intermediary; who knows from experience that the “strong independent woman” is an empty mouthful and that vulnerability is more attractive than insecurity; who isn’t a stochastic straw man of herself and doesn’t man-handle the opposite sex with lazy or deliberate misunderstandings; who is willing to grow, perhaps even with a partner. Is it just me, or has maturity become less challenging to achieve and more difficult to find?
Conformed Consent – “Rape” is what it’s called when a woman reneges on informed consent after she’s had her way with a man. The further her accusation is from that date, the further that fantasy drifts from reality, the further the man’s character is stretched to the point of breaking, the higher the risk he may never have a future again. Women have the inherit privilege of knowing for certain that she’s had a child. With enough fortune and honesty, that knowledge extends to knowing who her children are. A man may be lucky enough to hold just as many certainties as a woman. Targets of “rape culture” women are gifted one such blessing without his blessing. This man knows just how badly he’s been fucked over by the girthy cudgel of “words matter”. Incidentally, I have noticed in my time working in offices that only men claim I’ve called their baby ugly when I critiqued their results. I don’t think it’s possible to consider what one does in an office craftsmanship, but I kept that to myself. All this victim-laden career-obsessed privilege-slinging attention-seeking schizo-hyphenated bourgeois terminology is making me feel nauseous, heavy, like my mind has contracted something alienating, unproductive and septic... I have no idea how to get it out safely without humor. Williams’ division of those who find pleasure in love and those who practice envy is never more applicable than when trying to wrap one’s head around what menticide means.
My Back! – To the women who complain about having a man twice her weight sometimes lay atop her during sex: Do you have any idea what it feels like to dance with a woman who is too proud to acknowledge she’s over a foot shorter than her man? All that pain before even getting to be an ass!
Time Will Tell – Prohibiting the correction of “beefs” is the first conversational sacred cow that should be utterly slaughtered. Butchered, not sacrificed. Forgiveness is paid in rapport between souls. The next bleating lamb to massacre would be “I didn’t say that!” Why is it never “Why would I say that?” The tech to forever capture one’s faults is nearly ubiquitous now, but I refuse to use such a crippling crutch – you’ll have to see yourself through these vibes to see me for what I’m giving you. Peace of mind comes from a beating heart.
What’s the Point Again? – To assassinate character, one must tarnish one’s own to influence those who go without.
The Woman is Speaking – Words are like spent condoms when slung from a particular kind of woman. Her man seeks to convey and converse meaning, but would settle for a little warmth, even if residual. If the state of her speaking is her only point, a constant pin-pricking, use your own contraceptive – don’t tie yourself before the mast, man, steer clear!
Artificial Intelligence Claps Back – Identity is a unique non-random repeating character, with which all characters are numbered and resolved as true or false. Technology built on the principle “survival of the fittest” cannot be utilized without strife as its drive; mediocrity is the best one can strive toward when the lowest common denominator is criteria for success. Natural selection (emancipation) is not possible within artificial environments. A culture reliant on controlling language can never grow beyond its petri dish. What theory, conscious or otherwise, has and will continue to prove is how subordinate Technology needs Culture to be in order to make it through the day.
From “Lived Experience” – “Words matter” is less useful, more useless than “things matter”; every “life” is a form of traction without friction or friction without traction – an unwieldy encumbrance to those who learn first hand.
A Dialogue in Two Parts and One Step – “Words matter.” “Have you tried using your fingers to grasp these words?” “Use softer tones.” “Have you tried conditioning your thoughts before letting them air?” “You hurt feelings.” “Have you tried not stepping on my toes?” “Listen to me!” “Have you not grown tolerant to your own voice?” “You’re an asshole.” “I’m not the one taking it – care to dance for once?” “Will you lead?” “I thought you’d never ask.”
Dial Tones and Automated Receivers – “...Words matter.” “And context?” “…” “And tone?” “…” “And feeling?” “…” “Conflict and resolution?” “…” “What about expanding vocabulary?” “…” “That’s what I thought before I started thinking.” “…” “What about experience and understanding?” “…” “I hope your silence means you are thinking, I’d hate to think you’re just resentful.” “…” “Do you think I’m trying to change your mind?” “…” “Open it?” “…” “Roll it over to see what flies and what sticks?” “…” “Can you hear me?” “…” “Is anyone there?” “…” “I love you.” “Finally got you to say it.” “You have no idea how much I do for you.” “Yes I do.” “You always know just what to say.” “I know.” “Now, where’s my order?” “…” “Cat got your tongue, too?” …
Phoned In Junkies – “I like long walks off short peers, drowning my head in sand, fingering my reflection and wasting your life as much as mine.” Why do I keep getting sent this text? Why should I bother dialing into this rotary anymore? Hello?
Pied Piping Prophecy – What did the Disney Princess of Disinformation preach before she was canned three weeks later for being too happy working for the State? Remember to follow the bouncing ball… “~Come on girls, dance with me, right on into slavery! ~You’re not free, it’s not screed, if you choose to follow me! ~Now the fee, you’re with me, nowhere else we’d rather be…!”
Relevancy – Avoiding victimization is just as harmful as remaining a victim. Yes, but is it self-destructive? It's not whether Man has free will, but does this individual have freed will – victim status is a privilege and entitles one to nothing.
Codependency – When one person in a relationship is terrified of being alone and the other of being a fool – just not as much as either fears change. This form of connection is to live in a bubble without boundaries, that is, without definition; transgressing a boundary is as remote from apprehending one as giving up is to letting go.
To the Intended Pathology – Thank you for the long memory you have gifted me. Thank you for allaying my doubt and lightening my debt. Thank you for the appreciation of my solitude. Thank you for being an example. I mean, could you imagine not living as an example?
I Wish You Well – At the helm of a relationship, all one’s efforts go into seeking another in whom one can see an individual, a depth one could fall in love with. Too much time in the shallows and one may forget that heights can be just a hazardous. If one’s deepest desire is to never be caught seeing too much of oneself, grant their wish with a push: “All you have known has been a lie. All you know now will be a lie. All you will ever know can only deepen the well, that is, add to it. Is there anything more beautiful? More full of promise?” Any nets cast with this wish would only relieve another’s treasure. Treasure, one might pause to ponder, that was not worth keeping.
To Shame a Shrew – The kink with brats isn’t how far or how much they provoke to get what they want, it’s that they think they are worth more than what they don’t know – without knowing it. The contemporary brat is the female equivalent to the man-child, but what is there to tame in the man-child? What commercial enthusiasm dares claim disparaged children as exclusively feminine? Which organization gleefully pushes to expand misogyny's definition in such a way? Does assigning gender to a word make its speaker beyond reproach or just beyond collaboration? Gendering words once gave them character, a handmaid to understanding, but do such designations now permit anything other than whipping boy fodder? Do those who “rebrand” ever come to terms with settling for less, let alone take ownership of a loss? A more relevant inquiry for both sexes with a desire to learn: what distinguishes spoilage from squalor?
The Horse’s Mouth – When a person cannot handle even the slightest criticism, they essentially throw a tantrum for receiving a gift they didn’t like. The more warranted the fit, the less the critique was shaped to the individual.
In Other Words – “No! No No NO! I only want good things! I don’t want the bad! Read my mind, not my lips – cut the crust and spoon feed me!”
Shake It Off – Which came first, the chicken or the eggshell? Snakes come from eggs too, but can’t flap away after they break free – snakes embrace tapping for what it is.
Two Birds – If one must use their hands to express love, the water carried better have depth. Practiced hands need something to work with. Without something to hold on to, without the slightest grasp, is it fair to say one flies off the handle? This burden was signed for knowing full well what limitations lied in wait, but those confines stow away unplumbed. There is nothing like the trust in a craftsmen – that is, in a craft – to give manipulation a sense of touch and feel for navigation. If only one could handle conversations with the same care, so that one might go somewhere.
Dovetailing the Point – If propaganda had but one slogan to hawk it would be “words matter”; if it had but one loud speaker from which to project it would be the censorious; if it had but one mouth to feed it would be the foreign cuckoo’s; if it had but one target on which to discharge its waste, it’d be the public square.
Collateral Punishment – Knowing a political candidate functions as a cultural explosion terror tactic doesn’t lessen one’s burden toward solidarity if those in proximity don’t know what culture is. Without culture, politics has no definition, let alone distinction. If one doesn’t know their own value and values, how does becoming more political move one in a positive direction? My first line is an offensive defense – humor, an accurate gauge of immediate character needed and desired before any other advancement. I’m willing and able to work with anyone who can carry their own weight and think on their feet, keeping one’s world light and word tight.
About Face – When words matter, nothing else does. So I have observed. But why is it that mine aren’t felt? Does anyone else feel as I do about one’s own rank breath? I took my mask off so long ago that it no longer fits. The filter’s busted anyhow. How is it no one has noticed? Am I indecent for exposing others to the hazy incandescence of my curiosity? Can others really see faces when reading from a script? Was this an aspect of “mask” I hadn’t caught before? I was supposed to apply their words to my character? Have I been lacking imagination? No… my senses color those around me more vibrantly than ever. Could it be that they simply can’t differentiate noun from verb?
I Like Your Enthusiasm – A man’s head is the only sexually sensitive member of his person. A man who indicates otherwise is either too polite or too titillated to have finally received attention. Really, it’s not any more complicated than that. You’re welcome, ladies.
Performance Anxiety – The sensation that the sentiments of others are superficial without a kind way for a getaway.
Advocating for Oneself – I was recently called a victim by an attorney provided by my state and told her, yes, I wanted restitution and provided my damaged concerns. Half a year later she asked what I wanted restitution for and then said I’d have to speak in court myself, claiming it’d be highly unlikely I’d be compensated for my effort. When I asked her to provide evidence of her inquiry into seeing me justice and how we could work together, she emphatically told me, “We are not a team.” I do not have access to any court documentation, her three year case history or sense of her past performance, nor the ability to even see her face. Now, the only justice I seek is truth to the question: Who is she advocating for and for what? So far, the answer seems to hide behind either the State or Women. It could be the Individual, but who that is is not me. I hope the hearing date doesn’t get pushed back again.
Another Creative License!? – The opposite of a leaf is a smokestack.
Nothing but Smoke – The only notion more noxious than burning books is altering text. Not to say the majority of books shouldn’t be burned, I’m just trying to grasp why new brands sizzle so. Is it because new mediums zap impression and smudge reflection? Is it because potency has been engineered into redundancy? Is it because outsourced memory is cheapened every other year? Is it because “Information Technology” euphemized “book”? Or is it just that the new pulp is synthetic?
Hidden Lore – The oft overlooked value of books is that no burglar worth their weight wants to abscond with one.
To Listen to a Letter – The unappreciated value in writing is the lessening of habits of speech. Not an eradication or obliteration, just a reduction in noise. However, once pruned, if only grammar, platitudes or demands remain, sear the preachy bush to its root. If what’s left isn’t usable, cannot enrich this soil, perhaps there was nothing there from the start. Perhaps what was heard hitherto wasn’t a language that resonated, at least with one’s own frequency. An echoed birdsong, nothing more. What marvelous vistas make themselves known beyond this shrinking limitation, this small world’s view! How beautiful everything now is, to have been enchanted by shrubbery for so long!
Silent Sustained Reading – The most beneficial course in elementary school, something lacking in “higher” education. How much more one earns when debt weighs little on the mind! How much more one learns when attention has ceased being paid to the instructor and administrator!
A Modern Question – Would one learn more if one paid for schooling or just took time off?
A Turn for a Nod – Just because someone agrees doesn’t mean they understand. Time for a wrench, no? Surely they’d stop for a jammed spoke?
Divined Wrath – The artist has only one fear, one desire... that one day he may be understood; revelation is a temperament known only to those who work it out. Is it really procrastination if what one works on instead is creative? Well, then, nothing has helped my writing like stalling busy work.
Pet the Misfit! – The bad abhor nothing more than being mistaken for good? No, the bad fear attention from well-meaning oafs.
Cope a Feel – Those who can’t, teach? No, they manage. Those who won’t more often lead by example.
Directing Management – Most manager types are worth as much as that show-off twirling a slow/stop sign under working traffic lights.
His Mind Over Matter – Marx remarks somewhere that religion is the opiate of the masses. He failed to make explicit in his wordy works that without religion, opiates would be the opiate of the masses – industrial strength tolerance be damned.
The Underemployed – Useful idiots who are in it to learn.
Storm Chasers – Sometimes all a conversation needs to move on is a periodic “What point do you think I’m making right now?” Like an alarm that shouldn’t be ignored. Nothing affects one’s mood like the weather – except predicting it.
Popping Goose Pimples – Hubris is the sense of humbling freedom in discovering there are no Gods.
The Dead Horse’s Ass – Those who create don’t need to be proud of never missing a day of work.
To Fill a Bowel – When obsession becomes practice, becomes habit, becomes character… how should one crown obsession? Make everything else meaningless, in the best sense of anticipation. Character is needed to excuse whatever baggage comes with talent. The great thing about reading opinions of great people by great people is that there is less to concern oneself with. What a relief!
It Never Stops – I’m convinced that writer’s block occurs only when one hasn’t been honest toward the fragility of another human being or institution.
An Afterthought – Maturity is knowing how immaturity is expressed and experienced. Maturity is knowing who plays what game and how much inexperience costs. Maturity is knowing who dons what role and when. Maturity is knowing how circumscribed abstractions are, how hollow every enunciation sounds without meaning, and how language is only, more or less playful, manipulation. Maturity is knowing that curiosity begins and ends in laughter. Maturity is knowing when to forgive because one can’t forget. Maturity is when one knows, as comprehensively as tolerable, that one can accomplish something and chooses a new path. To mature is to understand that if this list ever became exhaustive, it would mean the end of everything.