When you watch television these days, you can get everything rom dancing to singing to sitcoms that make you laugh all the way through to crime drama. What occurs inbetween this programming is the news where at any time breaking stories can appear on the screen and overwhelm us all with, or example, the shooting in Vegas. I live out in the desert and was watching something on you tube when something came across the television behind me. The shots were happening and the people were just standing there. I could hear the bullets bouncing o the concrete. Ater a ew moments, people began to move out. I don't remember anything else about that night other than that story. So, it's back to dancing and singing and laughing at sitcoms. With the occasional reality break, television guides us through the world o iction so that we may be entertained and not bored. It's unny, when the electricity goes out the irst thing people say is, "I'm bored." No, you are boring and tuned into something that has taken and is taking your imagination away and decorating what is let with manuactured realities mixed with tragedies in reality.

I know everything is done on the phone now, but I am inding it diicult in getting one. I had one or a while, but I never really used it much. When the phone did ring, it was always somebody wanting me to pay or something else. I swear it seemed there were people who had my inormation and were trying to get me to release it to them. This is unny to me because I have absolutely nothing. What I do have is replaceable and thereore no great loss. I used to cherish things. I used to hold things in high regard. I always used to measure people by the quality o the things they had. And then I got older, about 19. That is about the year I began to recognize the posers rom the real people in my town. Like most towns, many inluential amilies played gol or had kids who played gol. I did not come rom an inluential amily. I came rom the working class. I you want doors to close or you early in lie, make a name or yoursel in your town beating the hildren o inluential amilies at their own game. You realize that not every smile and handshake is given to you by a riend. All that crap aside, why should I have to pay x amount every month to use a computer... and then it hit me... it's all connected and everybody pays. So, I guess I will cease looking or a keyboard and just get oline completely here pretty quick. I mean, my identity has been ripped o I think twice so ar, so it's kind o hard or me to take everything too seriously at this point in time. The only thing I know is that back in the 70's us kids in the neighborhood played outside until the street lights came on. And by play I mean we were playing hoops, hide a go seek using the whole neighborhood... backyards included, tag, ootball, racing bikes, the lot. Neighborhoods are not like that anymore and kids are getting phones at age 5. 

The most popular people in pop culture today are going to age just like us all. They will age out o the limelight they sold so much o themselves to stay in. The process o popularity is one that dies with the public that worshiped them. During the process, these people were unded by a spellbound population needing to be entertained; we all need to be entertained. The lives o the everyday olks pale in comparison to the stars we make out o some people. But one wonders...
I have never wanted to be a amous star. I never saw how there could be any advantage to being one who is looked upon as a vessel o creative/cosmic musings and then thrust upon a beacon to be worshiped at every turn. I remember seeing stars when I was a kid. I ound them all to be short and relatively skinny people who were only smiling when a camera was on them. The more wanders around in the world o psychology, the more one can see certain movements in people that show their various moods. In a deeper sense, one can see how people see their world i one looks long enough at the right things. The point being that there always seems to be an ingredient missing in the recipe or success. That ingredient is happiness... a word not so easily deined.
rom an early age we are told what will make us happy. Go to school, get a part-time job. Date a ew girls in college and then pick one. Have a amily and work hard to save or retirement. Pay o the house and travel in your new RV. Pay cash or your inal home by the water. It sure sounds great! And all along the way you have a happy marriage with no problems and the kids are always respectul and courteous. I mean, it's easy to see how this kind o scenario is not so easily attainable. Many olks will never come close to this type o happiness. Many kids will never develop the mindset necessary to be anything other than what they are. And i what they are is someone who has less than somebody else who he thinks must be happier than him, they can go in a ew dierent ways. They can use what they see in that guy with all the stu and work hard to be like him or they can steal and take shortcuts to acquire stu. Some people are quite happy when they are breaking the law and stealing rom other people. This is why happiness is diicult to deine. or an addict, happiness could be his irst year clean. It could be when an adult learns to read. One thing is or sure, whatever kind o happiness you desire, it must never include hurting anybody or anything. To gain happiness rom such things is just evil. The bottom line is no matter who or what we are or think we are in other people's eyes, we are all mere mortals in possession o a body and a spirit. Happiness, true happiness makes the spirit glow. One o the rare and predictable times you can see a spirit glow is when a woman learns o her pregnancy. The glow o her skin happens because o the glow o her spirit that is burning bright inside her.

Genesis - Abacab

Very oten what is hidden between the words comes out to those who know how to read them. It happens on a level on which they are unamiliar and thereor are unable to acknowledge.

The Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way

The old man heard rom a riend back in 1937 that Rolex was the watch to have and he should get one. At that time, the old man was a young whipper-snapper looking to make a ew bucks. He was a hustler, a pool hustler who moved rom town to town being young and getting into ights. Without thinking very much about it, when he ound himsel ahead, he would buy himsel a watch. He didn't tell anybody, he just bought a Rolex watch and then then put it in a box, wrapped and everything. He knew what time it was, it was time to make money. Ater the war, the old man ound himsel in the insurance business and he also had part ownership in a urniture store. Over time, he began collecting much more than Rolex watches. His success alone in the insurance business aorded him plentry o peoperty or storage. He had two tractors, a ield o corn... along with all kinds o other vegetables. I think he retired when he was in his late 50's or something like that. Everybody liked the old man. He always lew the lag out in ront o his porch. I'm not sure anybody in the neighborhood knew the man served in World War 2. But I knew. I also knew that he was never alone. The old man always had people around him. I don't think he had a amily  his own, but he did have a amily member or two live with him over the years. I think maybe they came by to check on him because he never really talked very much to anybody. I mean, nobody knew a thing about the old man. Interestingly, one night I was watching the news. A local man was outside his driveway handing over various items he has collected over the years. He had been there or hours. I guess ater some time, somebody called the news station and told them there was a guy giving away treasure rom his driveway. I looked at the screen and it was the old man. I immediately ran over to my riends house and we went to the old mans driveway. Turns out, he had been there all aternoon just giving away things he's collected over the years to anybody who came by. The news got there just in time to watch him open the last box that was behind him. It was a good size box and very well sealed. The old man ripped open the box with some box cutters and grabbed the irst item on top. With a smile he looked at me and handed me the item. It was a Rolex Sea dweller 1665 Double Red-Mark 1V. I to this day know nothing about watches and I don't think the old man knew either. The only reason I knew what kind o watch it was was because that is what it said on the box. The old man never opened it. I made the news cut that out. But they continued ilming the old man until he handed over every watch in the box... all o them Rolex watches. Turns out, that old man had been collecting every Rolex watch made between 1955 and 1989. He had been giving them away or years. When asked at the end o the day why he gave it all away, the old man said, "I collected these things or a long time and got enjoyment rom each and every minute. I never got married, never had kids, and since I am on my way out, it made sense to me or people to beneit in some small way rom the joy I received in attaining it all. Anyways, where I'm going, none o it does me much good."