The Jungle

 If someone were to ask me about my life I would be honest. Everyday it has been like a jungle. It’s been like a wild beast chasing me devouring everything and everyone around me that I love. I’ve watched everyone die begging for mercy fighting for more life. Drugged up in pain smoking, drinking, and overdosing. It’s been rough being a positive thinker living a clean life. Now Mom is gone, eaten alive by cancer, and as I swim trying to save other family members as I catch my breath here comes another challenge. It’s like I’m the only one standing, one of the few from my tribe left. If there are laws to the universe and a God that controls it, I have to convince myself that he’s the reason to keep fighting. I can’t give up. I have to keep believing that the impossible can be done. I have to escape the jungle, I have to defeat the beast. The dragon that wants to end all time on earth.

Is anyone still with me? Can anyone see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Is there an end to the madness?

The Bull Market

 “Oh Gloria, we can finally afford the home we always wanted,” Raymond said hearing a knock at the back door.

“Ah sweetheart it’s a beautiful bull, someone must’ve left him here for us to raise as our very own.”

Raymond’s wife straightens up, “Honey, we can’t afford to raise a bull.”

The bull then rages through the house bouncing his horns off of everything and everyone.

After terrorizing Raymond and his wife, he burst through the door to terrorizing the entire neighborhood.

Raymond looks at his wife while noticing the damage, “I tell you honey, that thing doesn’t discriminate, and none of us are going to be able to buy anything if he keeps raising his horns. Who’s going to fix this door?” Raymond says hearing screams and the local market crashing.

His wife emerges from the back room, “That’s the least of our worries Babe, a bear just got in,” She explains.

Raymond can’t help but notice a trend. He contemplates grabbing a gun. He and his wife decide to just escape through the back door. They’d been cornered and decided to pull out and settle for less. They came back later to assess the damage, “Thank God we diversified our portfolio,” Ray said smiling at his wife. He cashed in all of his gold and they began to rebuild another nest egg.

The Bull Market

Human Nature, It’s wild

 I’m still wondering how my cousin ended up in the middle of a shootout, he’s getting gunshot wound treatment right now.

Jessica never told us that she swings both ways, what a secret to tell your father at his surprise birthday party. He seemed like he took it okay, I think.

I just noticed that I’m mixed and my mother was a proud member of the KKK and my dad was a black panther. I have no clue which side I’m on. I think I’ll sit these racial fights out. Please don’t vote for me, I just want peace and quiet.

I was at a football game when my cousin out of all people threw a pick six on the game winning drive. It’s going to be a long ride home. I noticed the scouts leave before the second half.

Sadly, one simple birthday party turned into a wild twerking session. They blamed it on the music, but I honestly think someone spiked the punch.

My uncle keeps leaving a trail of wild Irish liquor bottles everywhere he goes. Lord knows what he and his friends were doing at the old house grandma left him. Panties were hanging from the chandelier and his best friend was found lifeless with no clothes on in the hallway. Til this day we have no clue what happened in that house.

As I get older I’m learning more and more about human nature and it’s wild.

Shootings, heart breaks, unexpected deaths, and doctors searching for a cure. Tina kept her money problems a secret. At this moment no one knows how she hid it because everyone thought she had it all. I guess she finally humbled herself after selling everything. I saw her at a bus stop and somehow we ended up in Vegas taking vows with a pastor in a clown suit.

Human Nature.

It’s wild.

Money Blues

 “Hey Joe Play that tune,”

I just got paid and all my money is gone.

Kids keep crying, I told them to pay for their own phone.

The world keeps spinning and politics keeps winning.

Joe keeps asking me for money and the reverend is calling, but I keep sinning.

I got the money blues, money bluuuuuess, yeah.

I ain’t getting no lovin because I’m afraid of what it will do to me.

Momma’s dead and she left me with the bill to pay Fred.

I got the money bluuuues, money bluuuues that won’t go away.

I’m grateful for another day so I guess there’s no need to pray.

I got the money bluuuues, the money bluuues.

I just got a check but the bank holds it for seven days.

I can’t pay my bills on time so I guess I’ll borrow it from Shay.

She told me it will come with interest, I’m disapproved, maybe next time it will go my way.

I got the money bluuues the money bluuues.

I went to college and lord knows I still have to pay.

That attorney told me to sue, but I changed my mind because they need money too.

I got the money bluuuues, money bluuuues oooo weee.

I just got a spam call and I hung up for free.

Even my rich friends are hounding me.

I got the money bluuues, money bluuuuuuues.

“Alright Joe, that’s a wrap, tell the band I’ll pay them once I get my check.

Money Blues

The Fundamental Universe

 “David, close your eyes and tell me what do you see,” Crystal said to her child.

“It’s dark,” he replied.

“Are you blind?” She said, turning out the lights making sure the room was pitch black.

“Mom, I can’t see,” he said running into things.

She quickly turned on the lights.

“Now tell me, do you think this all happened spontaneously or do you think we’re beautifully made?” His mom asked.

David looked around, his eyes were now open to the extent of man’s imagination.

At this moment David’s mother planted something inside of her child. She questioned herself after she saw him standing on the roof the next day.

“David, what are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself,” his mother said.

“I’m creating my own path in time Mom. I’m getting it over with,” he said falling flat on his face.

She rushed over to help her son.

“I’ll see you on the other side Mom. I figured it out. Fear is our worst enemy,” he said as his soul left his body and floated through the darkness of space back to the source. 

His mother was never the same. In all of her years of studying physics she never thought she would have to deal with something so fundamentally flawed. Sitting alone in a dark room she contemplated suicide. She blamed herself over and over again never letting go of a fundamental decision that we all must make. In deep guilt and depression, she gathered up her life savings and sold everything. Her son’s last words stuck in her head, playing in her mind over and over again. She spent the rest of her life running marathons and memorizing Bible verses until everything faded to black.

“Crystal, open your eyes,” someone said reviving her.

“I saw him at the finish line,” she said.

“Who?”

Exhausted, she tried to get up.

“Crystal, relax, we have to get you to a hospital,” the voice said as she came in and out.

“No, just sit me over by the tree,” she replied.

She was so tired that she could barely move. Passed out at the finish line she’d pushed her body to the max. The image of her son jumping off of the roof played over and over again.

“He’s not coming back,” she said to the water-boy.

Still shaking from a grueling marathon she then tried to get up.

“Mam, you have to rest,” the water-boy said.

“He had wool hair like you,” she said as the water-boy rubbed her head with a cold rag.

“Mam, you have to relax.”

Deeply faint, her soul left her body and floated to the edge of space back to the source.

She felt her son.

“Mom, it’s not your fault,” she heard.

Floating through the darkness of space like a speck of dust her soul entered a huge ball of light.

At that moment she could feel a force pushing her back into her body.

“I’m okay now,” she said.

“Well, we thought we lost you there for a second.”

“I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Whatever created us and the universe is merciful,” she said sitting up against a tree as the other runners crossed the finish line.

“You mean ‘God’?” One of the emergency staff said.

“Yeah, that’s what we call him. I’m okay now. I now believe in something greater, I’m not afraid,” she concluded.

“Mam, you just completed the longest marathon in the world. Do you know what you just did?”

She then found the strength to get up and grab her things and live the rest of her life telling others about how she’d ran to the edge of space fearlessly facing a merciful force that allowed her to speak with her son. She lead the entire world that couldn’t see through the darkness back into the light. 

Sometimes we spend our entire lives searching and teaching about fundamental truths that many don’t see in plain sight. Crystal’s journey revived a fundamental belief in something greater than mortality.

The Fundamental Universe 

In our search for complex answers we often find fundamental truths hidden in plain sight.

Man Cave

Deep inside of me there’s a selfish beast. At night while I’m asleep in my cave I can hear a roaring voice talking to me. This is my cave and none of that political, feminist, crying over another man’s losses is allowed in my cave. I fantasize about things that feeble minded people may not be able to stomach in here; women, wealth, power, and success. I pay the bills in here and only man stuff is allowed in my cave. When I go out and hunt for game I earned my keep. Deep inside there’s a monster on some ape stuff dwelling inside of my bones fueling the entire atmosphere in my cave. At night I dream in my cave and everything revolves around me and if I have a guest I politely hide any of my weapons in the back of my cave to be polite. Only man things go on in here and if that snake starts talking, I choke him until I get tired. I can feel the outside world plotting on my territory. I can hear sheep getting terrorized and eaten in the wee hours of the night by wolves. Only man things go on in this cave and when the big bad wolf comes to blow at my door it’s made of stones so nothing moves. My triceps get stronger and stronger every time I open my heavy door. Deep inside there’s an ego the size of a mountain that no one can move. I read in this cave, I sleep in this cave  and when the world around me is full of B. S. I hibernate in this cave until they flush that smelling stuff down the toilet and move on with real man things. When females be on the same stuff out in the world while I’m plotting on my next meal, I go to my cave to focus on man things.

My Man Cave is my Home, it’s my prerogative, and when I pass on to the next life, I’ll still be haunting my cave.

Boo!

Man Cave

Don’t bring that B.S. around here and if I get hired to do a man’s job I expect to be paid a man’s wage.

Man Cave

Hear me roar.

Let it go

Anger and time are like an unwinding toy, beware of how you react because you may regret it later. Be patient and find a reason to be happy. In the ghettos of every nation although the probability of living may seem slim there is beauty in the struggle. 

Frustration and time are like waves settling on the beach. The truth is that we often say things that we don’t mean and when we think people hate us they’re actually trying to make us stronger. Those whom we harm often haunt us if we fail to give them closure in the end. 

I say let it go. The middle finger at the traffic light. The angry wife nagging you to take out the trash. The supervisor hounding you to work harder. The policy that may not be in your favor. One thing that’s for sure is that even if you don’t get your moment today time is your best friend.

Eventually with patience you’ll be all good.

Let it go.

The Power Monkeys

“What did you see John?” The reporter asked.

“I saw thousands of them. They were leaping from tree branch to tree branch. It was as though they were chanting as they got stronger and stronger. They went from one town to another terrorizing the people,” John explained.

Trembling in fear he saw hundreds of them headed in their direction.

“Run!”

He and the reporter were the only ones close enough as everyone else stood by watching from a distance in a nearby town.

Keisha grabbed her camera. It was as though the monkeys were receiving some form of divine power. They were filled with energy. Pummeling through the small town. One of the Monkeys smashed through a kerosene store window and pretty soon the entire town began to burn. People were running in fear and no one could figure out what caused these monkeys to just snap. It got so wild that one of them jumped inside of a running abandoned car and started running people over. The rage was obvious, but no one could figure out why these monkeys were so upset. Emergency sirens began to go off. 

“They came from the East and there’s more on the way, we’re going to need weapons,” John said to Keisha.

In the distance as they both hide in a nearby store, you could hear windows smashing and people screaming while running for their lives. 

“Why were we not prepared for this? Why are these monkeys so angry?” John asked as Keisha frantically searched for something to fight off the monkeys with. He noticed an old man hiding under the store counter.

“My gun is in the basement,” he said while taking notice of John, but it was too late, in a matter of seconds the monkeys came smashing through the window and ransacked the small store.

Hiding in fear, John could see them dragging the old man from underneath the counter. Massively outnumbered, it was not too long before they overtook him and Keisha.

They came like a thief in the night and destroyed the entire town and everyone in it. 

They were powerful and their strength came in numbers.

This alone gave them power.

They were the Power Monkeys and nothing could stop them. It was their time.

The Trail

 As a child I ran 100 laps around my Aunt Denise’s duplex. My cousin couldn’t keep up. I then noticed that I’d been running for so long that it became quiet. It was as though everyone passed away and I’d been running in heaven while feeling like hell. It was hot, and when I looked down I’d made a path in the yard. When I got done, I was sweaty, and threw up. No one asked me if I was okay nor did anyone offer me water. Tired and exhausted, I drank from a garden hose with no fear of pesticides. I took this journey not knowing if I was going to return home. I had no food. After a few breaths, I went off course, and no one came looking for me. I ran through the woods; Age 8; fearless. Pretty soon the street lights were on and I could hear my mother calling me. Mom cared, she always did care so I  left the trail to return home. Tired and exhausted, like most young boys at my age, at the end of the day I soon realized that mom was the only one who actually cared and when she died it became quiet. I grew up, no wife, no kids, just me and the trail so I ran until I passed out. In the end, eventually someone would drop all of their bad habits and find me kicking up dust, passed out on a rock completely exhausted, yearning for a breeze and a second wind. Passed out under an apple tree on the trail, I had the weirdest dream that mom was calling me, but when I woke up it was just me alone on the trail. I guess that’s why we dream, so no one dies, even the person running.

The Trail.