They talk about being a nation of laws and push those as being justification for gassing women and children while crying crocodile tears about people calling them on the carpet for their selective morality.
“If you are not a citizen you’re not entitled to the protection of the US Constitution” they snarl while trying to understand how that doesn’t provide cover for their immoral behavior.
The mix of dumb and delusional intermixed with those that haven’t stopped to think about whether there might be other ways of handling things provide ample evidence of how mob rule can lead to very bad things.
Ask them to read this and they’ll make every excuse not to take ownership of their immoral, illogical and indefensible actions while providing a list of reasons why I am wrong.
Bite me bad people, I don’t care what you say.
There are other ways to go that don’t require blindfolding Lady Liberty and taking a dump on the principles we wave at others while lecturing them about how we are so much better.
Why did we fight the nazis and engage in a decades long battle against communism to just give up.
I had a Bad finger once that pointed in the wrong direction and people told me I ought not to wave it around.
Someone I know told her mother about it and mentioned how I posted it and I almost asked why they didn’t offer to kiss it and make it feel better.
But I thought about it and decided it was the wrong time and place and went about my other business, until later that night.
And then I looked out my window, drink in hand and wondered what the future might hold.
Day after day that Badfinger grew stronger and I focused on the mighty tasks at hand because there wasn’t time to lose myself in fantasy about what could be, not then.
Those were the days when I had to grind 0ut the minutes wondering if this is how a coal miner feels. I might not have been 100 feet below the surface but I felt like I was crawling through a cave with only the faintest of lights to show the way.
Sometimes I got by because I could hear music and followed it.
I did whatever it took to fool myself into taking one step forward after the other.
“JW, you can go your own way or you can just go away.”
The reflection said it with a snarl and enough edge for me to take a step back and then I snarled back.
“We fought off the Willies, Norbs and Tims. Handled the Hamilton guy, Wes and assorted dopes and weasels and made it to the other side. That is worth something.”
Sometimes I can’t remember if it is 15, 17 or 100 years later but whenever I spend any real time thinking about it I can’t help but remember the importance of the timelessness of it all.
When you can’t remember the beginning, middle or end because it feels like the karmic connection science says is nonsense you ought to be smart enough to not ask questions and just accept you don’t get that with everyone or everything because time takes a toll.
That mask I wear seems to be making it easier to figure out if maybe I can be as good as I once was.
It makes it so that when I hit the gym I hear the echoes of the past and the future and see possibilities for trying a knot between those two threads.
The treadmill wraps me in its embrace and I start going harder, pushing to hit a rhythm that I can remember but haven’t touched for a bit.
Midway through I feel something start to give and wonder if I am going to try to push through and beyond but I don’t try.
Not yet, not now.
It is hard to pull back and not give what I have, to restrain myself when my nature is to fight.
For a moment I hear Rocky talk in the latest installment, “you have to take pain to give pain.”
****
As I walk out of the gym the 20 year-old kid asks if I am feeling ok. Haven’t talked to this guy before so I tell him I am fine and then ask if one of the other locations has a pool.
“I need to add some low impact on the joints but big results overall to my workout.” He says no and we shoot the shit for a few.
Back in the car Facebook makes my phone buzz and I see some familiar faces. Turn the car on, hit the seat warmer and sing along with Sly.
“You know I did it before and I can do it again, some things work because they are natural and maybe, just maybe they have a touch of the supernatural too.”
The reflection tells me I am acting ridiculous and I silently tell the shadow to suck it.
“The unreasonable man causes positive change because he is unwilling to limit his efforts to reasonable choices” or something like that.
Damn the sheeple and their refusal to think. Damn them for much and more.
The magic is there for those who will do more than hold the match.
