Suspension of Disbelief

I just think it's funny how we curtail "good will to all men" and so forth to a predetermined period of time each year. Naturally, it comes at the end of the year, when we've all finished our blood-sucking and greedious endeavors for the year. It's a time to kick back and absorb the well wishes of your fellow man. Yet, that's too cold. I'll try and remain optimistic. Pessimism is best left for the other 11 months of the year. But December, oh that's a horse of a different color all together! When I think about it, the holiday season only means two things to me: Presents and peace and quiet. (So what if that's three things; it's two concepts. And who's writing this thing, you or me?) Presents and peace and quiet. Now I'm not being cynical again. Let me explain. During this season we are taught to set our differences aside and put up with relatives that we ordinarily wouldn't / couldn't. We are supposed to be kind and cordial to e...

Home for the holidays, now isn't that a novel thought. I thought "home is where the heart is." In which case, I've never left home; it's always come with me where ever I've gone. Hmm, maybe they meant metaphorically. Hopefully they did anyways. The way I see it, home is where you are most happy. During this holiday season, I came to thinking where home was for me. When I'm sitting at the DC for breakfast do I say I'm going back to the dorm or back home after class? For a while there it seemed sort of strange equating home with my 10 x 13 rectangle of paradise. But you know what, I think it grew on me. And, the more I think about it sitting here at "home" during winter break, the more it makes sense. For vacation, I'm heading to my mom and dad's house, my brother and sister's home. When vacation is done and classes recommence, I'm heading home.

In my life I've seen a ton of things, some good, most not. And when I sit back and reflect on my life, I realize the sheer number of possibilities that I've survived. Rightfully, by my count I should be dead at least three times over now. Seriously, not metaphorically, stone cold dead. 1986, 2000, 2002-3. And, probably more in there too. Yet I'm still here, albeit if not for modern medicine I wouldn't be so lucky. Then again, who's to say. I don't believe in predestination. Do you know what would make my life worth living? When I die and take up residence with God, the utterance of only one sentence would make life completely worth all the shit that was lived. "Through thick and thin, everything that you were, everything that you experienced and did, you did it all yourself." That's all I'd need to know. I love people who claim to be innocent, not that they are or aren't but that they are able to make that claim convincingly. Me, I'm no...

Reality defines generations, makes us who we are; yet reality is abstract, as no one reality can ever prove to be the "real reality." Reality is also ever changing and ever elusive. It is never the same thing to different people at any time or the same thing to the same people at different times. Experiences that we face mold and change our perception of the world around us in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. Reality is not the notion of an overarching principle by which all life is defined but rather it is the macrocosmic concept we use to describe the compilations of all our microcosmic experiences, desires, and aspirations. It is how we see the world. Of course, the world is not a perfect place; because of this reality becomes less simple. In the "real" world, reality is subject to interpretation by the body in control. It is this interpretation that is then forced upon the masses as a means of control. In this way, reality can be altered through the use of ...