Throw It Away

“The real truth is we porn actresses want to end the shame and trauma of our box office lives but we can’t do it alone, We need you men to fight for our freedom and give us back our honor. We need you to hold us in your strong arms while we sob tears over our deep wounds and begin to heal. We want you to throw out our movies and help piece together the shattered fragments of our lives. We need you to pray for us so God will hear and repair our ruined lives. Don’t believe the big top fantasy. Porn is nothing more than fake sex, bruises and lies on video. Trust me, I know.” -Shelley Lubben

I am an Extremist (You Got Me)

There are some things I read and watch just for the purpose of infuriating myself.

Today I followed a breadcrumb trail of claims on the Internet that I hope to God are not true.  Someone, please, right now, show me something that will convince me this is not true, because right now, as Jefferson once said, “[i]ndeed I tremble for my country when I reflect God is just.”

This is why.

“Nowadays, instead of dressing in sheets or publicly espousing hate messages, many extremists will talk of individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better place.” – EOAC Guide.

Wait, wait, a guide used to teach our American military boys and girls states this?  Yes, yes it does.

Also: “Extremist Ideologies” the document states, “In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements.  The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule and the Confederate states who sought to secede from the Northern states are just two examples.”

I thought this was a good thing!

Our founding fathers were extremists, I agree.  What they set out to do was pretty extreme, I mean, talking about rights.  That’s completely crazy, rebellious, and whoa there, how dare you ask for rights.  You listen to your mother country right now, or you and your extreme attitude are going to get it…

The men that made our country happen are not perfect, ideological stars without a single moral flaw.  Many of them were jerks, and dare I say complete assholes (look to your right.)  They also had the audacity to say “I’m done.  I don’t want to be part of this anymore.  I have a right to rebel against a government I think is treating me like trash.  I want something else.”

And America was born.  Small, frail, and should have come out stillborn, but it managed against the odds.  Lucky little prick.  Who would have guessed.  Thank heavens she was around when World War II broke out.

But Mr. U.S. Government,

I thought I was supposed to be a cute little patriot.

I thought I was supposed to idealize the country these men made happen.

I thought this county could never go wrong.

Isn’t that what you’ve been trying to tell me?

I thought it was a good thing to challenge one’s government.  

Isn’t that what we were founded on, and didn’t it work?  Aren’t we challenging the government to change its stance on equality of marriage?  How about that fuss over civil rights and dreams we had?  Nope, sorry, that’s a bit too extreme for your government.  Sit down, be a good boy, and have some tea.

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to always be kept alive.”  Thomas Jefferson.

I understand that this these statements are currently meant to apply to “dangerous” extremism, but for the love of humanity, don’t say it like that.  It makes the rest of us who actually want to “make the world a better place” a potential target when it suits someone’s purpose.  Technicalities, you know?  The devil is in the details.  If your idea of making the world a better place is blowing up those who don’t fit your idea of a perfect world, you like in Hypocrisy Land.  If you think the world would be better if we opened up our hearts to love and equality, you’re on team awesome.  Really, so long as your aren’t seething with hate or advocating bloodshed in your quest for a better world, I think that makes you part of Team Awesome.

But just so you know, you are considered an extremist.

“Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness.” – Thomas Paine

Truth

“Just because someone sees the Truth doesn’t mean they will accept it or allow that truth to change them.” ~ Ted Dekker

Practice Makes Print – Training For the Final Race

Johnny woke up one morning and thought to himself “I would very much like to run a marathon.”

Now, Johnny had never run before, but that was OK.  He put on a pair of shoes never meant for running and leapt out the front door.  The wind blew through his hair as he trotted along down the street.  “My, this is easy work, this running stuff,” he thought.

So Johnny ran off into the sunset and became a world running champion.

The End.

Run, Johnny!

It doesn’t take a brilliant mind to understand that this is both ridiculous and rather uninspiring.

There’s a reason for that.

It takes blood, sweat, tears, guts and piss to become a great athlete. It requires taking your heart and sacrificing it upon the alter of hard work, dedication, determination, perseverance and pain.  To become greatest at anything it requires your very soul.  And most importantly, to get anywhere close to greatness, the universe demands of you… your time.

Practice is what I’m getting at here.

I will never sit down one day and begin to churn out the greatest novel there ever was.  I will never wake up one morning and say “By God!  I’ve got it!’ and roll in the money twelve months later.  I’ll tell you what I will do.  I am going to practice.

Whether I feel up to it or not, I will write.  I will cover page after page in worthless, unsalvageable writing that will never see the light of day.  Hundreds of pages will be covered in my shotty handwriting, and will bear the half-formed babies of my mind that only I will adore, and even then the adoration will be born purely out of a secret narcissism.  I will run.  At first my running will be short lived, of poor technique and of Made in China quality, but I will run all the same.  I will build myself up to that marathoners strength and speed, and one day I will cross the finish line, sweating, stinking and crying.  My years of scribbling in notebook after notebook will hold up that first published hardcover in my hands.  No one else has to see how much work was behind it, only I will know how many sleepless nights, broken pens, and ink stained pages it took.  I and shall shelve my victory with a dance to Bruce Springsteen in celebration.

“Dancing in the Dark” by C. Money

I dream of becoming a great writer.  I dream of becoming published and of my stories being read by hundreds, maybe even thousands of minds.  I dream of having my stories heard.

I and every other human being on the planet dreams of something great.  People dream of becoming a great musician, or a great doctor, a great writer (hey buddy!), a great parent, a great runner, a great businessman, a great human being, or simply great.  To myself and those who also dream of becoming great I say…

Get your ass of WordPress.  Go!  Those manuscripts aren’t going to write themselves!

“Truest love”

“Truest love needs no words, demands or promises. It is wordless territory and thoroughly unconditional.” ~ Tuomas Holopainen (from Nightwish)

Baltimore Dolphins & Bookstores – Supporting Our Culture Makers

Supporting Our Culture Makers

I recently visited a Barns & Noble in Baltimore with a friend, the one within walking distance of the Aquarium (which is fantastic, might I add).  To get to the B&N I had to cross a walk way, or a bridge you could say that crosses over a water way.  On that walk way I saw a man setting up a large piece of cardboard.  He was a small, worn looking blank male, with one eye that didn’t point in the same direction as the other.  His clothes were worn and he was very quiet about his business, as if he were trying not to impede on anyone’s space.  Walking to the store I noticed him only because I am from a community where street-whatever-have-you is not common place.

I had my fun in the B&N.  I ran my eyes through every bookshelf before settling down with a book on physics, one on the periodic table of elements, and a copy of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  I normally end up walking out of a bookstore with a fantasy novel of some kind, but I was feeling brainy that day.

Exiting the bookstore (I was there for maybe an hour) I saw that the man had set up studio on his large piece of cardboard.  He was painting on long, narrow canvases, and a few of these canvases were sitting out next to a money jar.  When we were passing by, I looked down and I saw the painting on top was that of a dolphin, its black silhouette leaping out of an ocean that glistened and was made up of multiple shades of blue.  It was simple, elegant, charming, and caught my eye.

We’d already come to the crosswalk when I turned around and came back to the painter.  Here I noticed that, while his clothes may be worn, and his face hadn’t seen a razor in several weeks, his paintbrushes and his paints were not cheap.  His supplies were well kept and looked after.  I bent down and I tucked a five into his jar, I mentally called it “paint money”, and looked down at the dolphin painting.  I told him that I really liked his paintings, and shy ninny that as I am, took off as quickly as I had come.  He’d smiled at me, giving the warmest smile I’d ever received from a stranger.  When I ran back up to my friend he gave me a very confused look.

“Artists are important,” was all I said in reply.

Blue Ballet by Glen Josselsohn

I think we, as a community, forget too often the importance of the artist.  Be it writers, painters, poets, sculptures, dancers, musicians, etc, we often forget or never even realize how important they are.  The big time artist and the local artist, we need to understand that it’s these people throughout history had been integral hands in the formation of all human culture throughout human history.

Try and imagine a culture without a media, without the paintings, the pictures, the writings, the music, all entertainment, and everything else artists provide.  There isn’t a culture when you remove these things.  It’s quiet, colorless, without song or stories.

One of the things that makes humans unique is our imagination, our ability to fabricate things that have no place in basic survival, but serve to feed and form our minds and our souls.  (I still regret not asking about buying that man’s painting.  I still think about it a month from now, even after the details of the painting have left my mind.)  Perhaps you don’t think yourself much an artist, or maybe you are one, either way, try and remember  when you hear the radio, when you see a local painter or dancer, remember that is people such as these that have made the human experience so unique and beautiful.  They are the creators and feeders of our culture.

Support your artists.

Artists are important.

The New “Everything” Blog

Far Too Many Words + Unique Brain Processor = Educated Insanity..

I set out to create a blog about writing and books that I read.  While there is an endless amount of material to be drawn from these, I found myself bored not with the material, but with the limited scope I had given myself of things I could say about these things.  Instead, I am going to let everything and anything crop up on this blog.  I am a college student, trying not only to survive my classes, but come out with a sense of who I am, what sort of adult I will be, and what sort of lense I will enter the “real world” with.

Hello, I am College Student #No One Cares, I invite you into my thoughts.  I cannot promise you that they will be sane.