In this world you almost have to be obsessive compulsive to maintain yoursel in what they call, "The ast lane." I watched a young woman spin hersel right out back in the 90's. The woman never stopped. She went to work, ran her dog, went out every night schmoozing perspective clients... and all the while she absolutely hated hersel. By the time she was done every day it took her a couple hours to calm down, with a buzz, every night beore bed. She couldn't have averaged more than 3 hours o sleep per day. I knew her or almost our years until one day she up and let everything behind except her dog. I ound out some time later she met some hippy dude and moved to Oregon. It's unny what meeting new people can do to someone's lie when they are deep down ready or a change o pace. Nobody could maintain the way she was rolling in lie. She would be worn out beore 40 and I think she knew that. Hell, she never had time to enjoy hersel. Sometimes people just have to say, "This is enough!" I think she did that... well.

Tom Petty- Crawling Back To You

The most respectable people I have ever heard about and known are the ones that cannot be bought. They work because they enjoy what they do and many o them work with their hands out in the ield. They put things together and repair things. They are very oten available whenever an emergency is taking place. It's hard or many o us to imagine what it would be like to enjoy what we do every day and also make a living. I ind these kinds o people to be better than average when it comes to the smart department. They all share one really helpul quality: They know what they cannot do and will not do. They know what their limitations are and they avoid rom having to take part in something that would not be natural or them... every single day. or example, I think I can sing. I sound good in the shower. But I also know that my singing sucks and would never claim to be a singer in public. or I am my own private superstar.
I understand working hard to get ahead. That's absolutely antastic i the journey is worth the sweat and tears. I the journey is worth it, you would learn to bathe in the sweat and tears. There has to be some kind o goal in mind; at least a series o small and attainable goals. But what is o the utmost importance is knowing who to talk with when certain processes get to be a little too much in one way or the other. You have got to pay attention to each person you speak with about the situation because everybody will have a solution or you or know somebody who can help. This is one way you can judge who the respectable people are in your lie. I you are steered in the direction o party a and party a turns out to be legit and on the level in their business practices (as ar as you can tell, but alsity is easy to sell), then you have received advice rom someone who could be viewed as respectable... at least so ar. The basic idea here is to seek out respectable people i people are what you need. I you ind someone you know is a simple con man selling real estate on mars and making over 100,000 a year doing it, you will have to ask yoursel," Is this something I would do or money?" And the answer to that question is no.

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