Keep Rolling, Sisyphus.
The world problem is the individual problem; if the individual is at peace, has happiness, has great tolerance, and an intense desire to help, then the world problem as such ceases to exist. You consider the world problem before you consider your own problem. Before you have established peace and understanding in your own hearts and in your own minds, you desire to establish peace and tranquility in the minds of others, in your nations and in your states; whereas peace and understanding will only come when there is understanding, certainty and strength in yourselves.
Where does it all begin, what's the root. No guts, no glory, or something, right? Lamont is most likely a crackhead. He met with me one day because he needed a voucher for gasoline, but I couldn't give him one. We talked for awhile anyway, about poetry, and before he left he gave me the Emily Dickinson volume he had been cradling under his arm. We see each other around town and we interact as two human beings. Allen Quinn too. He's absolutely a crackhead but when you stop treating him as though you know he's going to freak out on you, there is a human underneath. I'm not saying you should leave either one alone with your children, but we are all human beings. We all want the simplest things. To be treated with compassion. To be safe. To be cared for. I wish that more people would see thier individual goals as macroscopic goals. I wish it were easier for all of us to find compassion in our souls, to find the commonality that binds us all together as humans.
I wish it were easier for me to put the madness of that hallway out of my mind, but I can't.
We sat next to a really nice guy who had a stack of court appointment cards that was literally fist thick. He works on a ship and has to request leave each time, and it costs him $60 to make the roundtrip. A stack fist thick and he hasn't even glimpsed the judge yet. The prosecutor met my glance with a sneer as she walked by. I don't know what we're doing, or why we're doing it, but it's time to reassess absolutely everything. It's a problem when there is a price tag on freedom. It's a problem when someone who has committed a crime is constantly beaten down with the "you did this to yourself, well, fuck you" mentality. How is it productive to make a guy who's trying to earn a living come to a building upwards of twenty times only to sit in a hallway, and then telling him that he deserves it because he's a fuck up, and he'll always be a fuck up? What is justice, exactly? It's a problem when we come to positions of power and forget that we, ourselves, are thirty seconds away from being criminals. (You better believe I would arrange another lynching ala Damien Tyree if some fool tried to hurt my mom or dad or sisters or Aimee.) A lay-off away from homelessness. A medical disaster away from starving to death or freezing to death because there's no money to pay bills. There is a serious problem when we stop seeing other people as human beings. So much hostility, everywhere. Maybe I'm crazy, or retarded, or something. I just can't figure out how things could have possibly evolved this way. "What you do unto your fellow man, you do unto Me also." I wish we could all just remember that.
Where does it all begin, what's the root. No guts, no glory, or something, right? Lamont is most likely a crackhead. He met with me one day because he needed a voucher for gasoline, but I couldn't give him one. We talked for awhile anyway, about poetry, and before he left he gave me the Emily Dickinson volume he had been cradling under his arm. We see each other around town and we interact as two human beings. Allen Quinn too. He's absolutely a crackhead but when you stop treating him as though you know he's going to freak out on you, there is a human underneath. I'm not saying you should leave either one alone with your children, but we are all human beings. We all want the simplest things. To be treated with compassion. To be safe. To be cared for. I wish that more people would see thier individual goals as macroscopic goals. I wish it were easier for all of us to find compassion in our souls, to find the commonality that binds us all together as humans.
I wish it were easier for me to put the madness of that hallway out of my mind, but I can't.
We sat next to a really nice guy who had a stack of court appointment cards that was literally fist thick. He works on a ship and has to request leave each time, and it costs him $60 to make the roundtrip. A stack fist thick and he hasn't even glimpsed the judge yet. The prosecutor met my glance with a sneer as she walked by. I don't know what we're doing, or why we're doing it, but it's time to reassess absolutely everything. It's a problem when there is a price tag on freedom. It's a problem when someone who has committed a crime is constantly beaten down with the "you did this to yourself, well, fuck you" mentality. How is it productive to make a guy who's trying to earn a living come to a building upwards of twenty times only to sit in a hallway, and then telling him that he deserves it because he's a fuck up, and he'll always be a fuck up? What is justice, exactly? It's a problem when we come to positions of power and forget that we, ourselves, are thirty seconds away from being criminals. (You better believe I would arrange another lynching ala Damien Tyree if some fool tried to hurt my mom or dad or sisters or Aimee.) A lay-off away from homelessness. A medical disaster away from starving to death or freezing to death because there's no money to pay bills. There is a serious problem when we stop seeing other people as human beings. So much hostility, everywhere. Maybe I'm crazy, or retarded, or something. I just can't figure out how things could have possibly evolved this way. "What you do unto your fellow man, you do unto Me also." I wish we could all just remember that.
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