The American Dream is Just That

My parents taught me the nature of sacrifice, the power of creation and the value of building something from scratch.

The American Dream is not prosperity. It is survival.

We all must live within our means, be curious about the tribulations of our neighbors, and curb the laziness of having to learn about lifestyles contrary to ours. We're all trying our damndest to live and find it easier to build walls, find others to blame and fabricate adversaries for our own problems.

We choose leaders who give empty promises to fix problems we ourselves create, because we blindly accept or are numb to the truth that we are not able to lead ourselves or find alternatives to live our lives off the path of self-destruction.

We create beautiful things to eat and yet shame ourselves for the enjoyment of them, because we forgot the idea of 'enough', rendering our self-image to falsely perceived psychological constructs, becoming more strangers to ourselves than those who look upon us.  We work ourselves to the ground in punishment, often shaming those who stop to breathe and rest, when it is often too little or sadly, too late.

No other creature on earth (or in the universe that we know of) can live the paradoxes we force on ourselves. Perhaps it is our penance for the gift of choice and reason, though we often don’t use it well and find every way to work against it or be numb to it. Maybe we were the cosmic error that fixes itself in the course of time. A blip. A hiccup. The original sin, the aberration, the beautiful mistake.