Monday, January 31, 2005

Hives, Worker Bees, and the Truth

I love those who defend city-life. They dance and dodge to the best of their ability when you try to pin them down on just what the city offers that the country does not. If you can ever force one to give you an answer you'll probably get a stuttering list of important sounding places that the cityboy has never actually stepped foot in.

The workerbee will prattle on about museums he doesn't go to, symphonies he's never been to, festivals he doesn't care about, and so on. Dispatching these one by one, you eventually come to the foregone conclusion. The city has more bars. Confronted with this.. they offer only deer in the headlights stares.

The fact is, he doesn't know why he's there at all, and if he does, he'd never admit it.

He's searching for something. He's searching for the Truth.

You know these people. They grew up in the country. They grew up in a good family, with a simple life. The problem is though, that simple life just didn't fit with them. They just couldn't accept that that really is all there is to it. They have images in their heads... put there by TV... of what they are supposed to be doing... of what is supposed to be fun... and it doesn't fit the simple life they grew up in.

So they scrap it all and head off to the Big City... in search of the Truth.

They get a job where they rot away in a cubicle for 8 hours a day. On Friday they go to all the bars. They drink but mostly they pose. They can't for the life of them figure out why people aren't coming up and talking to them like they do on TV. They cannot understand why its not fun like it is on TV. They then conclude that they are just in the wrong bar, and reslove to try a new place next week. Then they resolve the same thing the next week... and the next... and the next...

And every morning... there is a knock on their door. They climb out of bed half hung over... and they hear, "Hello. I'm the Truth."

"I'm sorry. I'm not looking for you. I'm looking for the Truth." they respond, and go back to bed.

These sad people waste their lives looking for exactly what they left behind.

Even sadder is the way this permeates so many aspects of people's lives. Christians get stuck in a similar rut, where they jump from church to church, always looking for some ideal that no church will ever live up too. Women jump from man to man looking for "Mr Right". Men jump from girl to girl, because they are convinced they are missing somthing.

And that's really it isn't it? What we have isn't good enough for us. We are continually assaulted with this media imposed ideal, until we believe if we don't have it we're missing out on what everyone else has.

In reality no one has it, and you may have just pissed away the best thing reality has to offer.

Have a nice day in your cubicle.

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