The Year of Living Cautiously
Randy Ray
2007-11-20
Peaches En Randalia #21 2) Facing your twin. You wander in the middle of the field because that’s what you’ve always done. You feel like something similar is not always something sane. You give what you can but offer so little that you don’t have anything left to show. You seek innovation but you don’t take the risks that said activity demands. You leap from first floor buildings because that’s as far as your mental vertigo will allow. You transcend thin air because to endure the clouds one more time may suffocate your purpose. You lean on ladders which have no support but appear comfortable. You scold the wind because human contact is too dangerous. You call it quits because the alternative is something that is far too unpleasant. 1) Finding your identity. 2007 hasn’t been the best year for much of anything. The war in Iraq is officially a failure and yet, most Americans know at least one person who is either still in the Middle East or heading there (both in my case). The current administration has never been even remotely subtle in its selfish agenda which leans towards arrogant fascism in the need for national security in place of a democratic body informing its limited government. If one ever felt free or empowered in America, 2007 begged to differ and the fear is that 2008 will cement that dark implication. Everything from polar ice caps to the music industry are evaporating before our eyes and we refuse to take responsibility for our own actions. Stop accepting what you are told to do. Rebel against the norm and seek to think about what it must be like NOT to be an American and one can understand why our way of life, our mode of thinking and being are so alien to a sustained relationship with ourselves, let alone an alien culture. The twin points I’ve been underlining during my Year of Living Cautiously as an American citizen, consumer and culturalist are that I played it safe because I had to be careful. I chose obscurity because clarity was no longer within my grasp. But being slow to act and quick to hide from confrontation is fine if you are fighting inner demons that need addressing. We cannot change our external environment without facing what it is that drives our internal motivational triggers. In 2008, I hope to catch a lot more music than I did this year. I hope to see more films. I hope to read more books. I hope to see children playing outside as much as possible. It is our earth that they will inherit—a planet that is a living entity with a long history and one in which it will defend itself if threatened. Moral decay comes from the village society in which one dwells. Only you can decide how much reality you can change but playing safe, living cautiously is no longer a mental state one can afford to occupy. If you think you can just hide behind your omniscient monitor wall in the future, think again. Get up, google out and be something worth talking about this time next year. Don’t let the things you love become a part of the world you despise. Turn off your computer and breathe real air before that will no longer be an option. Oh…and Happy Holidays. - Randy Ray stores his conversations on www.rmrcompany.blogspot.com
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