It's Everything But Me

It's the caffeine, the nicotine, the milligrams of tar. It's my office, it needs to be cleaned, it's my car. It's the fast talk that they use to abuse and feed my brain, it's the right and the left, faux facts, it needs a change. It's the pain, it's women and it's men. It's the plight for power. It's big government, it's what they've spent. It's the way you're given knowledge... slow, with thought control and subtle hints. It's rubbing it, itching it and it's applying cream. It's viva Viagra, it's four hours with high beams, it's in my dreams. It's the monsters that I conjure, self defeat, embarrassment, it's where I wander. It's my genre, Madonna's videos, it's game shows and cheap liqueur, it's a bumper sticker with rainbows. It's some angels, some demons, many Gods and white devils. It's the television monitor burying me like a shovel. It's gas fumes, fast food, Tommy Hill, Mars Ill, Columbia House Music club, designer drugs and suburban thugs. It may be the East Coast, no, it's the West Coast I don't know. It's government run public schools, it may be the Lotto. It's sleep, life and death, it may be speed, coke or meth. It's hay-fever, pain relievers, antihistamines, bad breath. It's in the air, it's in the water, in the meat. It's indirect, indiscreet, inconsistent, incomplete. It's in the streets, every city everywhere you go, and every man woman and child, it's everything you know. It's the insanity and the fantasies, the casualties of war. It's Sean Hannity, the DNC and GOP and it's a bore. It is the welfare system, creating welfare victims. It's television religion and it's false ways of living, it's the prisons. It's wondering if you get to eat, it's the heat. It's the winter and the weather, it may be Herpes and that's forever. It's a virus that takes the life of the weak and the strong. It's the drama that persists inside the storm. It's a hunger for attention, and those that doubt redemption. It's prevention, that's the first solution, it's mental pollution and public executions. It may be a part time job that governs what you can afford. It's the taxes that I pay, so that babies can be aborted. It's my fear, it's my faith, it's been betrayed, it's the form of a check that was supposed to stimulate. It's the economy, wait a minute, it's a thought. It's all of the trinkets shipped from China, it's U.S. workers loosing jobs. It's the Dollar, Yen, Pound, it's all denominations, it's receiving hourly wages for your professional observations. It's on your face, it's your eyes. It's a frown, it's a lie. It stretches for about as far as the eye can see. All of this is reality, and it's everything but me. -Ray VanderLouw (Inspired by "Scapegoat", written by Shaun Dailey).

Our Culture

In our culture today, we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers. Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but we have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. We have larger incomes and more debt. We have bigger homes, but smaller families. More conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense. More knowledge, but less judgement. More experts and yet more problems. More medicine, but less wellness. More religions, and fewer Christians. Too much religion and not enough Christ. You see we drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch too much television and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions and reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, hate too often. We learn how to make a living, but not a life. We have added years to life, but not life to years. We have been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We have conquered outer-space, but not inner-space. You see we have done larger things, but not better things. We have cleaned up the air, but have polluted the soul. We have conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less, accomplish less. We learn to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. You see these are the times of fast food and slow digestion. Big men, but small character. Steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes and more divorce. Fancier houses and broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable values, throw away morality, one night stands. It's a hook-up culture. It's overweight bodies and pills that do everything, from cheer... to quiet ... to kill. This is the time were there is much in the show room window, and nothing in the stock room. Yes, this is the state of our current culture. Or is it?