It’s beautiful down here. Great weather. No stress. People come here, they live to be 100.
–Joey Merlino
We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death.
–GY!BE
As long as we live in this world we are bound to encounter problems. If, at such times, we lose hope and become discouraged, we diminish our ability to face up to what challenges us. If, on the other hand, we remember that it is not just ourselves but everyone who has to undergo hardship, this more realistic perspective will increase our determination and capacity to overcome what troubles us.
-The Dalai Lama
We are living in a news cycle that can be measured in nanoseconds.
-Dan Rather
If this doesn’t take you down,
it doesn’t mean you’re high
-Soundgarden
Yo. Trainer here, at the bougie coffee shop, where the jazz is smooth and the skin is white. I can’t complain but I will. It’s been a long time that I should be far from here, and I’m way past being sick&tired of my own bullshit. Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to spend some time with others, hang out and fraternize, but-most of them are worse. What an existential stalemate I’ve reached and for shame, too. I’m in the prime of my life with money in the bank but all I can do is bellyache about how easy living is down here in the Pearl of the South, crank out another 400 words and go home and jerk off. Oh well, it could be worse, I could be satisfied with life, like any of these feel goodies here at the coffee shop seem to be, listening to Curtis Mayfield, eating bananas and grinning like imbeciles.
This could be a great opportunity to take to the streets, or hit social media and throw my complaint onto the pile. I can’t even pretend to care anymore and it could be because the whole thing has been at hysterical pitch too long. No wisdom can be discerned. I see outrage and I understand. I see smug complacency and I didn’t think I could ever understand but-look at me, with my fat stomache and apathy, black clothes and apolitical angst. Whichever side you’re on, one thing is certain and that is the genie can’t be put back into the bottle. Racism is the biggest problem in this country, barring imminent ecological disaster, and the American experiment has failed. We ain’t gonna make the nut. It’s all over baby blue, big business has trumped all and the thing that really spurred it on was as dumb as the color of our skin. I can’t pretend I’m not entitled, no matter how much I ignore the national scene. Does my apathy anger you, Good Reader? If so, then use it-impeach the fucker, eat the rich people, start a riot in the street and burn it all down. Let these be the chronicles of a sorry bastard who didn’t care, or whose own emotional load was too close to capacity to affect anything except putting out fires. It’s that bad.
We came up with a soft date for my departure, and it’s after the summer and the over 3,000 miles we’ll be doing up to the Adirondacks and back. I looked at a car today. Lady wanted to sell it to me at almost a grand over the Kelly Blue Book value, and that was after my mechanic found about $500 worth of repairs she claimed unaware of. It goes on. Psychologically I suppose I’m at a crossroads. The worst is done. I’m sober now. I’ve survived and I don’t even entertain the bad drama needed to get laid anymore. Mr. Excitement has retired, the dreamer is fully woke. I suffer bad anger and terrible boredom though, the former flaring in my abdomen and stiffening my neck and upper back, literally getting my haunches up and cursing to myself in the dark. I can’t carry that burden anymore, either, Brother. I feel like there’s an opportunity here, that I could do a lot better than cranking out 600 word complaints to you and generally just getting by. My first time on the therapist couch I’d been up for over 72 hours on whisky&cocaine. Safe to say I’m over that. I’ve survived. Maybe it’s time I give my man a call and see if we can thrive.
See you next week motherfucker.