manniac
dharma explorer
Posts: 568
(8/31/03 4:36 pm)
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Stranger in Paradise
The sound of senseless equilibrium is permeating the airwaves... flowing through tattered membranes and seeping out of the pores of our disenchanted belief system. Upstanding citizens are walking in a daze. High level officials are making up stories that don't quite add up. Everybody is looking with faraway eyes to find a landmark -- some hint of recognition to ease the burden of taking one more step.
Hurrying to a destination we could never imagine, we have now found ourselves at a crossroads we can not fathom. Don't look now, but the dreams you left behind have taken on a life of their own. They got tired of being neglected and have forgotten all about you. Can't blame them, really.
The chips will fall where they may. You were taught that a long time ago. You just didn't realize how fast it could all go down. Living your life of reconciliation. Scattering the ashes of your future along a toxic shore. Building those sand castles with your flimsy plastic pail. Crumbling at the first hint of rain...eroding before your very eyes.
Life is simple. It's living that gets a bit tricky.
What have you done today to show for yourself? What set of circumstances have you risen to challenge? You'd like to sew all these things together into a workable pattern but too many pieces are missing. Rummaging through your closets and rifling through your boxed-up memories. You must have left them behind. Casting off the weight of the past. Making room for the treasures you would most certainly obtain. Left with a chest full of debris whose value has long since run out. Trinkets of your obsession. Surrounded by a pauper's ransom of fool's gold.
We have pawned our worthy items for one throw of the dice. We have not exercised a great deal of wisdom.
I saw you on a beach long ago. Or was it you who saw me? Recognizing each other from a time and place that very likely never really existed. We were traveling on separate planes but our paths crossed for a moment. What exercise were we completing to bring us to that point in time? The Universe holds its secrets well -- and it will always refuse to surrender to our will. Questions move through the day in lonely states of confusion. Answers remain under house arrest. Wonder exists in spite of itself. You and I live elsewhere.
My car broke down on our first date. You spotted me across a dizzy dance floor years later. We held each other as if the world would end with the song. We never spoke again.
I've seen my face in a thousand mirrors but I've never laid eyes on it. I've never witnessed what everyone else can see. Me. Walking. Laughing. Sharing my thoughts. I have only ever imagined what exists in every second. I have traveled with a stranger.
Would you recognize me? Would you smile at my approach? Or would you turn away to avoid an awkward conversation?
Who do you think you are, anyway?
Time has gone away. You're living in a past that never happened and existing in a future that will never be. You're looking out from a ground-floor hotel room onto a tropical landscape. It's late in the afternoon and the sunshine is glowing in that darkly beautiful way that makes you think of eternity. The waves of the ocean are breaking in perfect harmony with the day.
You rush out to share in their majestic destruction. And midway you stop. And turn around. And realize that nothing is the same.
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The next best thing to playing and winning....is playing and losing |
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