When The Levee Breaks

Soundgarden - "Fell on Black Days" Live @ Hard Rock Calling 2012

A debate should take place to determine when exactly men became influenced by their feminine side which is and has always been displayed within the entertainment industry. In all honesty, I have not found its beginning. One could track it to MTV and then take it from there, I suppose. The fact is, you may have a pastor that engages in what can only be described as frivolous behavior. He could be wearing the same mask he's been wearing since childhood. It is often the case that certain truths destroy people's idea of what reality actually looks like, its influence on them, and everybody around them. It can be said that what we think is reality is just a series of small, medium, and large advertisements designed to obtain everybody's money. Once we leave our dwellings, all our masks come on. It takes real balls to put down the masks we are so familiar with; we've been reinforcing their use since we learned how to wear them. Television simply keeps us in the game, in the spell, in the delusion.

A true victory is walking through the darkness and somehow making it through to the other side. Some see victory as being a military or sports reference to the winners. This is indeed the case. However, until someone has spent time walking with what can only be called demons (occurs inside your mind), they don't have very much to say about it. I do not recommend anybody walk down the path of addiction, to anything. For me, alcohol was the gateway to my own personal hell. I do not have any regrets for having gone through each of my nine or 13 withdrawal episodes of which two led to seizures and one led to me stopping breathing. I have too many family members and friends who have struggled and lost to alcohol and/or drugs. I was ready myself to cross that line. During the later portion of my struggle, I could not sleep and the only thing I did was drink beer. My hair started falling out. I shook all the time. There was never enough. I have to say that during my years of drinking, I met a lot of strange people. It is really amazing how there is an entire sub-culture devoted to drinking. To be a part of that traveling carnival is something you just have to experience to believe. The main issue always becomes, "what do I do now?" After you have done the party thing, the sex thing, the winding up in another state thing, you will come to the crossroads: continue and die or stop and live. As far as I know, there is nothing worse than the three to four day withdrawals. The things I saw were truly horrifying. In every instance, I quit cold turkey. This is a huge mistake. But at the same time there was no way in hell I would ever be able to ween myself off of alcohol. It was cold turkey or nothing. I still have my life-long companion, manic depression... whatever that means. Alcohol took it away for a short time. But once that time became too much to bear, I had to accept the pain I have always felt on the inside. I cannot run from my darkness, but I know I cannot drown it away either.

I see nothing wrong with being alone. Society seems to frown on single people as if we were suspects in a crime. Questions appear in their minds: he must be gay, he must have lost his wife, he definitely has mental problems, he must be afraid to commit, and so on. These are typical reactions from a pool of people which consist of those who have a 50% chance of making their marriage work. Making something work between two people takes compromise. It takes the kinds of compromises a single person need not think about. Is it true that some single men and women are afraid to commit? The answer is yes. But this cannot rationally be applied to all single people. I think we are too easy to classify someone that is different than what society and families expect.
Being human means we are all different, yet we all have many things in common regardless of pigmentation, history, religion, family, friends, hopes, and social belief systems. We all have dreams to be engaged in that which truly brings us joy, to raise a family, to travel, to take chances, to experience victory and find understanding in defeat. Those who are single and experiencing the middle part of their lives are considered, to a certain and measurable extent, outsiders. It is as if they are sitting alongside a great river while everyone else is swimming in it and having a good time. That example may not happen where anybody can see it, but it does happen in the minds of misfits like me. I have come to know that goodness does not always win the game. Reality brings it all to you in full force. Finding a niche in such and accelerating society is almost impossible. But I know it begins with one single thought. That thought must be different because you are you and there is nobody else like you.

Steve Miller Band - Serenade (from the Stars)

In a society built on a foundation of lies, truth is often hard to find. At certain times in various forms of media, words get spoken and written by certain people with dark affiliations. These words are designed to expel disinformation upon this society as a whole. The dog and pony shows on our televisions (our gods) only serve to keep us uninterested in the realities nobody cares to see or investigate.
 People often make the mistake that media was once honest and free from politics and/or influences designed to sway public opinion. That lies have never been used. That sources have been made up and so on and so forth. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people must not know what is happening to them as they wouldn't believe it anyway. Only from the outside can one gain a fuller understanding of society and what makes it live and breathe.
The spells run so deep covering multiple generations that hard evidence presented to any one person that runs contrary to what they believe serves no real purpose as they would call it all lies. The spell is working well and will continue to do so. Truth is very often a most destructive force. It serves no purpose unless people are getting paid in some way. The internet is but one more avenue being used to spread disinformation. Not until I finished school later in life did I realize that the books we were reading in school were also littered with misinformation and half truths. Nothing is as it seems, nothing!