live like no one else...

So, sometimes I get this feeling that everyone else is dumb.  This, of course, is a preposterous notion because it is a well known fact that there are, in fact, smart people.

It is not as though I think I am the smartest individual alive- because I don't.  I just start to think everyone else is dumb.  I could go all Bible-y and tell you that the Lord agrees with me.

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God."

But then I would have to admit that I am no Einstein either.  If I did that, you would no longer read this blog.  (Like anyone would ever read this blog. Ha! It's so long.)

Anyway, what I mean is that nearly everyone hates their job.  They don't like the way they look, they don't like politics or the government and everyone hates commercials.

We are all biding our time... waiting for our next weekend or vacation.  Waiting for the latest fad diet so we can starve ourselves thin.  Waiting for their guy to get in office.  Then waiting even longer once he gets there to change Washington. Waiting patiently while we are told to buy beer and batteries, hoping that the next commercial break won't last quite as long as this one.

This is stupid.  I do it too.  How often have I complained about Facebook and the waste of time the internet has become?  And yet I am on the internet right now 

Now one of the things I usually find distasteful is the blind repetition of mantras and catchy slogans that commercially viable spokesmen for this or that lifestyle create for the lemmings of America to consume.  These are easy to remember and repeat endlessly as you are trying to get your life on target.  

One of these sayings comes from financial help guru Dave Ramsey. Now, I do not think that Mr Ramsey is a bad guy.  He is just a commercially viable spokesman for a debt free lifestyle that creates catchy slogans to sell his books AND one of those catchy slogans has been rattling around in my brain (For those keeping score at home, so far I have called myself a blind repeater, a lemming and a dummy.  I am also not very good at self esteem).

"Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else."

Mr. Ramsey says that you should live on beans and rice today so that you can some day own a Mercedes that you bought with cash!  

That is all well and good, but I am not talking about Financial Peace here.  IN fact, what I am talking about here is escaping this crappy wheel we are all on.  How do we move beyond the mundane and ordinary?  How do we get out of here?

We live like no one else.

So the real question is why is everyone on this wheel of boredom and discontent?  Because it is easy to get on and so hard to leave.  We get used to the comfortably mundane and start to prefer it over the uncomfortable adventure. 

I, for one, would rather wake up groggy and cold with a backache if I was waking up in a campsite on the side of a mountain.   I think that it is worth it.

I want to live like no one else.  IN fact I think I was made to live like no one else.  I think that we were all made to live like no one else.  We are all individuals.


We were made to be set apart. different. holy. To live a life that is unparalleled. To be open to the call of God to do crazy, complicated and uncomfortable things.  To give up worrying about Financial Peace.  To trust. To love people.  

To live like no one else, so we can live like no one else. I plan to do just that.  I think it is dumb not to.

"Well Worn"

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you can buy this print.

"All American Dream"

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"One Way"

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adventure

Adventure behind,

the calm of sea

the lapping waves of discontent

Adventure ahead

the anchor set

we don't want more adventure yet

Adventures approach

hoist up the sail

and see if we can try escape

Adventures found

the journeymen

who know adventures can be great

the race

Walk slowly

with lifted eyes and a broken heart

silently plodding

patiently paced

the slower you walk

the better the race

men don't read books, they read literature

I am going to be starting a literature  club in the near future for men.  Manly men.  Men who don't just read books, they read literature.  Men who have to comb their beards out of the way so they can see the page.

This book club will meet once a month to discuss a book that espouses the true nature of manliness written, most often, by some man that has died, discussion will be had and many manly activities will commence (eg. war, big game hunting, boxing, etc).

I want to point out that this will not be a book club... i mean, it is a book club... but it's not this book club:

satisfy the inkling::.

There is this little inkling

that gets inside my head

and turns the cranks of thinking

when i should be off to bed

it yells and screams "create something"

do something really sly

make children laugh and grownups sing

but doesn't specify

and so i hope that this will sate

the inkling in my brain

that wakes me so i can create

a silly lil' refrain

the horse has fallen

when one falls off the horse

he picks himself up

dusts himself off

and gets on for another ride

when the horse has fallen

the rider feels helpless

beneath the weight of the beast

regardless

he will struggle till he's free

dust himself off

and trust the horse again

i am the horse

the shave

death to geometry::.

//

a bump on a very long road quickly fades into memory

a forgotten memory

when the next bump shakes the car

suddenly you remember the last one

now there are two points and two points make a line

a line goes on forever

but they are just two bumps on a very long road

just points

not lines

//

why i don't go to the zoo

the emu has pneumonia

the crocodile just sneezed

the anteater looks nauseous

the wolf has lots of fleas

the antelope has measles

the penguin has a cold

the monkey is allergic

to peanuts, dust and mold

the python's rather wheezy

the ape just broke his thumb

the zebra has a blister

the lion's feeling glum

the rhino has a headache

the hippo has a flu

and i'm a hypochondriac

so now i have them too

three::.

//

why does it always start with resolutions?

why are there always goals and objectives?

can we never break free from ourselves

enough

to be ourselves?

no.

and we can never break free from ourselves

enough

to succeed.

they say try

and we do.

they say get back on the horse

and we do.

they say practice makes perfect.

we have plenty of practice.

we know perfection.

it must be failure.

they say try and try again

and we do.

they say the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

what about bears?

they say don't do that smartaleck thing

but we do.

and then we start repeating

try and try and try....

and then we start believing

try and try and try...

and then we start resolving

because we think

eh...

couldn't hurt

every day.

pursue the white.

create, in shades of grey, a representation of white.

run.

//

reduction::.

//
this is where you will find me

in the black and the grey

in the foggy disconnect between the pure and the present

where we struggle with the wrong and the worse

because right is too bright a notion

white is too bright a hue

so here i will search desperately for white

and though i know my eyes will fail

that one, blinding glimpse will be worth the loss of sight

for it will at least kill this dismal shadow

so this is where you will find me

between the black and the grey
//