StoryTime

 Life. One day you are floating in amniotic fluid at a comfortable temperature, having sustenance provided for you, doing nothing but swimming and learning, a paradise. The next, you are pushed out into a world you know nothing about, with creatures, lights, and noise all doing their best to confuse you. Welcome to the monkey house.  At that moment, that so-called " blessed event, " my life became hell.  I firmly believe that we chose our parents and our potential paths. I chose my father and mother because they seemed strong, supportive, and intelligent. Add to those qualities my father's pragmatism and my mother's humor. There was also an interesting brother and a surprisingly familiar sister in that family.  One thing that you should know about me. I love a challenge. Give me a problem that takes a lot of concentration to solve? I'm in heaven. Fortunately, the family I had chosen to join lived in a central state in a confused and, unfortunately, rich young coun...

 In many of his books, Kurt Vonnegut speaks of writing as if he is telling a story to his sister. I never entirely understood this, as an audience is an audience. I don't think that is correct anymore.  While I appreciate anyone who would waste their time reading the nonsense I spew, my own sister, as it turns out, is the only one that I can be sure will either understand what I am saying or will appreciate that she now has a greater understanding of what a ridiculous human being I am. I freely admit this. I look back at my life, the last sixty-four odd years, and I now see just how foolish I was.

In elementary school, maybe third or fourth grade, we learned the story of Pandora's Box. I asked the teacher about Hope. Since it is the last thing in the box, wasn't Hope evil too? I did not get an answer. I have wondered and questioned that idea since then. I will soon be living in my car. I accept this as a natural progression of my choices and those of society. We are what we are. I have lived longer and experienced far more than I thought I would, and this is nothing more than one more thing. So it goes. Hope and prayer only get you so far as life will be what it will be, and it is not much influenced by those things. I firmly believe that I am being set up by universe  to learn about the ridiculousness of this world, not to be ' enlightened ' as previously thought, but to prepare me for my next incarnation. One that I am presuming to be of relative importance. The wheels of the bus go 'round, and 'round... Oddly enough, losing that devil Hope helped me re...