Motto: Subscribe to Buddhism, It’s your last hope to make it out alive
> I’m writing this column even before attending to the homework at hand because I fear that the homework will detract from my purely poetic mood. Once again I’ve just gotten out of poetry class and I’m feeling rather eloquent and I’ve got a good theme to write about. Today’s theme my friends: Life.
> We read a poem today called “America.” The poem, which I think you should read, and then reread until you get the same feeling that I got when I read it, deals very closely with commercialism and the way it has taken over American life. The poem speaks of “When each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you,” which, at first may not seem so moving, but when sat back and reflected on carefully is realized to be absolutely truthful as a representation of what life has come to mean. We do have a river of products and merchandise to drool over floating past us each day. I bet right now if you think of what you want more than anything else, it’s something materialistic. I know I have in mind a nice TV and a Playstation 3. While coming home from a long day of stress at a job or from school or any combination of things- these things would make me happy, I doubt highly that they are a good substitution for a love, a friendship, or even just a quiet room in which to reflect on life. We buy things, such as planners or computers, that help streamline our lives to be so task oriented, that we will lose any things that are real to the laundry list of things we “need” to accomplish. “Finish reading for class, find a monolog, memorize a monolog, write a speech, find a job, do research on video games, update the column” Where exactly on that list does “find something to inspire you, tell a joke to a friend, help out somebody in trouble, hold the one you love, reach out and make contact with that person you haven’t spoken to in a while, get a workout so you can have time to sort through your thoughts” fit in? It doesn’t. We are so caught up in obtaining the “American Dream” of 2.4 children, driving an American car to and from your successful job and your two story house with a lawn in upper-middle class suburbia that we lose sight on everything that is real and tangible. It’s not getting the American dream, it’s not even about getting your OWN dreams, it’s about how you get there. Or another way to put it- it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. We have become so materialistic that I would bet that if you had the choice of getting $1000, or a new friend who you can really relate to, most everybody would pick the money. We’ve put commercial products, gain, and money so far up on the totem pole, that it’s completely taken over everything we live about. What’s saddest of all is that we are being warned about this all the time! I recently watched the movie “Blow,” in which there is a line that says that “Money isn’t real.” That line, as well as the entire rest of the movie, is telling you exactly what I’m trying to tell you now. My own favorite band has been trying to tell me this for years. System of a Down’s “Chic and Stu” is absolutely all about it. I was so blinded by the whole idea of commercialism that I didn’t even realize what “Advertising causes need, therapy, therapy, therapy,” or later on saying “Advertisers got you on the run.” The bottom line of what I’m saying is this; don’t focus on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have, and change your perspectives on what it really is that you want. After you get done reading this column I want you to stop, just sit there for 2 minutes and think “what do I want out of life?” Then approach your answer remembering everything I’ve just talked about. I know I will be.
> Class Dismissed.
Top 5: Things I didn’t talk about that were worth mentioning
5. Classes got canceled in the middle of the day
4. I haven’t eaten anything yet
3. I finally feel that I understand the play that I saw the other day
2. We’ve dominated our last 2 games of basketball here
1. KU vs. Beasley is coming up again
Quotes:
” Classes got canceled, time to begin the Family Guy power hour! “
- some guy that just walked by me -
” This is the smartest discussion I’ve ever had with a lower level class “
- Carrey Voeller, my Poetry Teacher –