The Knight in Shining Armor

I break my fast and rush to the armory to equip myself

I don shining chainmail, gauntlets, helm, and greaves

I spy my holiest of swords, hanging on a nearby shelf

So I take it and slip it noiselessly into my waiting sheath

Last I see, just sitting there, a shield as lovely as it is rare

It’s the shield I’ve forged through many long battles

Though the once shiny surface will now not show glare

The shield is sadly now cracked with barbs on its handle

The shield that I wield is akin to a rose with its thorns

Though it is sweet to behold, it grows bitter with touch

The shield, it will no longer do and my hands it has torn

Perhaps it is time to finally stop using it like a crutch

My sword is now blunt and has been worn to the hilt

I wash my face and see eyes as dull as the edges now are

I must learn to sharpen with resolve instead of guilt

Lest I wake from my nightmare to find the battle too far

I wrestle with morals as with the life and death of men

For in saving the innocent I do so condemn us to fall

Into a life of passing moments that we try to live again

For a knight in shining armor, the princess is his all

Sea of Hypocrisy

It’s hard to stay afloat in a sea of hypocrisy

Fish eyes see what my limitations would be

They poke holes in someone else for fear

Would that they’d look through one in a mirror

And in the river fish pretend to swim upstream

Only doing enough to stall, thinking they gleam

Some fish only pretend to be strong when they swim

They have the gall and hypocrisy suits on a whim

Some fish find food like gluttons to sweets

But hollowed words are often empty eats

Yet some think I swim too silly or seriously

They’d have to swim in the same pond to see me

True Dreams?

Sometimes I have dreams that ring true

I don’t suppose it’ll be one with me and you

If dreams are real and love is waking in one,

I’ve never slept on account of the sun

Never means maybe and sometimes, always

But I’m in the waking; you’re a world away

Let’s meet in an oasis while you sing your tune

Eyes open and that pure water is ice in my spoon

We were splashing through puddles in the rain

Too much come down to see you without strain

Got water in my eyes and pink hearts in my head

Got to wake up again and see my real dreams fed

...And now I will give you unsolicited advice

Brace yourself. This is the post where I give everyone relationship advice despite having never been in a long-term relationship myself (and enjoying that fact about myself, actually).

I pondered human nature earlier today. I guess it's one of those things that you do at work. Pretty natural daily activity, really. Anyway, I thought of how the divorce rate is so unbelievably high and wondered what the fuck is wrong with the world. In doing so, I have determined a few things which I will explain in what follows.

People often say that relationships are built on compromise. I'm sure on some superficial level, that's true - like going to see a movie you don't want to or visiting someone's awful parents. But I feel like just because things are one way in the world, it doesn't mean that we can't change them. If something like a tool or machine is not working the way you want it to, you either fix it or get a better one. Why can we not apply that logic to other things? Relationships are built on compromise - that's stupid; it's like saying that people spend and give up things in order to have a partner. Why should it be like that? In my view, two people should add to one another in some type of synergy, to add to each other instead of subtract. Maybe that's why we have so much divorce...(Maybe that's why I'm still single and like being single, haha)

That opinion probably just represents one of my policies which is not to settle for anything less than the best. That's likely the cause of divorce; people settle when they shouldn't, get some type of immediate kickback and pay for it in the long-run (monetarily and emotionally).

Food for thought - I won't follow-through on this and attempt to give an answer because I haven't thought that far ahead and might not even have the problem right. Hopefully this provokes some thought about not only the quantity of relationships you have but also the quality of them.

It's a romantic world, society just covers it up

People often wonder about what it is that they want out of life and how to get that thing. Indeed, I've had those thoughts as well and find that my answers do not come to me as readily as they might to some.

There are people who want to be doctors so they go to med school and eventually become doctors. Some decide they want to do something physical so get into carpentry, or become a personal trainer, or maybe get into construction. Others decide they would like a life of thought and learning so they go to university and then teach there when they're done learning.

I guess in my case, the hard part had been defining what I want. I come from a middle-class family so getting to that spot in either direction shouldn't be impossible and I'm still young so I have the time. However, some of the paths I've went down seem confusing to others (and even to me at times). I have a chemistry degree and am currently working on an MBA, I have an interest in piano, write poetry and stories on occasion, and somewhat less popularly, I love curling as well. So what is the fix? Become a chemist? Become a business person? Become a pianist? Become a writer? Become a professional curler (LOL, it's not like the NHL)?

I'm not saying that people know what they want to do. I'm not just talking about careers either. I'm talking about what you want to get out of life. I've found the answer to be much less simple than that of others.

I had a minor epiphany earlier and decided that the best way of describing what I want is to say that I want to live in or create a world where nothing is ordinary and every single thing has meaning. I think of society and see it as boring in the sense that people will look in a history book someday and say, "Well, of course they did this. Society was like this at the time so they pretty much had to." I don't want to overturn every single element of our society; I just don't want to look back at my life when I'm older and say, "I wish I had done this, but society wouldn't allow for it at the time."

It would be nice to find and connect with people who share something similar to this ideal. People who want everyday life to border on surrealism with a healthy touch of realism here and there. Come to think about it, I sound almost romantic. I mean that in the literary sense, as in romanticism:
"...validating strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories"


I think that style of thinking, at least, tends to summarize what I would look for in an ideal world. A place where we have a deeper appreciation of strong emotion that isn't governed by billboards and ads (guess that's why I'm in Marketing, eh?). I think that world already exists and must be rediscovered by people. It's a romantic world, society just covers it up.

So wait, what's real again?

There was something I said as a complete joke last week on Facebook that inadvertently was actually quite wise. As some of you know, I am slowly becoming more and more obsessed with the Game of Thrones television series and its corresponding books by George R. R. Martin (he's so bad ass he has to have two Rs). I jokingly said that I had thought of some House words for House Milson if our family had existed in that fantasy world. The words I came up with were "Better. Honorable. Best," meaning that you should aspire to do things that make you better, more honorable, or the best at something. And you know what? Although that was written in a humorous context, that's really not bad advice at all. In fact, I mean to follow it.

I find that interesting. Just how much of a separation is there between fantasy and reality? Anything that happens in the physical plane is, after all, processed in the mental one anyway. Who's to say this isn't just all part of a dream I'm having or that I'm part of someone else's dream. So, no, I don't discount the wisdom in certain aspects of fantasy, music, literature, etc just because they don't always occur in the physical plane. They're not make-believe, really. None of it is if you don't want it to be.

People look at fantasy worlds and think about how brutal they are with the killings and style of life and whatnot. Really? Did we not just have a second World War that killed millions not some odd sixty years ago? Is it really that much of a stretch? How much do we choose not to believe because we choose not to see it? Remember this: Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.