The Diagram of 2016 – How

Growing up in an extremely sheltered catholic midwestern household I was always taught some very simple “guidelines”. Whether it be good or bad this is the life I know. It was always God, Family, and Country. Whether it be right or wrong – that is yet a whole other discussion but today we realized something as a country and I did as an individual. These are the truths that we live by in 2016:

Sexism > Unity

Diversity > Sexism

Family > Diversity

Money > Family

Power > Money

God > Power

Greed > God

Trump > Greed

And here we are. This justifies all votes and support for the great devil when applied to this diagram. It is undisputable as I have debated and spoken with thousands of people over the last 9 months of my life. It makes how we got here so very simple. This is the truth as voted by our own fellow countrymen. If you study this diagram you will begin to see the problems we are faced with currently. I see this in the eyes of my own parents. The rest is just shit talk. They can say what they want, but these are the new principles by which my own family lives and a much larger population as a whole. I have devoted an entire year of my life, $30,000 in personal debts, and countless unpaid hours working to promote Unity in 2016. But the truth is I believe Unity is currently where I put it in the diagram: dead last. I understand this. I get it. People love to use their mouths instead of their wallets. They want to talk about power and money and how they can acquire it at all costs – this is the baby boomer generation. Consume, consume, consume, and shit on the rest. I challenge you to see where this diagram applies – to me it sums up 2016. For anyone overseas – may God be with us and protect us. We are in for a dark time in our countries history – I can see it in the eyes of the people.

 

 

What a Rush

It’s that determined feeling

The sweet ambition

The fantastic touch

The plausible idea

Warm to talk to

Improving the rush

To the fingers

Head

Arms

The rush of the moment

The Borrowed Riff

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PHOTO CREDIT: EVAN PERIGO

In a nebulous state of mind

The concluding chord rung out

Wrung out

Fascinated by the quick sequel of progression

How one planned moment

Moves to the next

A grape plucked from the tree

Quickly becomes a past tense

Cattle that pine for the open fields

Excellent presentation

Not quite overstated

But rather I am fascinated

That now a moment planned now is

More present a moment unknown

A hat floating off the cliff

Taken in

The borrowed riff

 

The Rally Cry of the Tired

The rally cry of the tired

A worthy cause flamed out with vigor

Passing floating rolling

I have tried

To do good

Good to be undone

So much has to rely on a rally cry

When your tired

And lonely

Not alone

You feel sad

Disconnected from the world

How did it work out not the way it was

All planned

A plane in flight unmanned

The plane now is in the final descent

It will land

How

Unknown

But through all of this

I

We

Have grown

Grown up

So here we come

The Great Debate

Polite discrepancy

Independently

Who’s responsibility is it

Who’s responsibility was it

To be honest and clear

Alive and front and center

Taking the stage

As the great pretender

Honor the people

Before the investor

This is not a board game of sorts

Or out of sorts

I watch in horror

Decisions will be made tonight

During the outlandish debate

Hoping someone will seal a certain fate

Tonight

Alright

Let them at it

We can watch the fight

 

 

 

Life

Life has a way of changing

Right when you think it is all figured out

Right when you get comfortable

You get knocked down

Change is truly inevitable

It is in this inevitability that we must anticipate

Await new challenges

New celebrations

New frustrations

It is all in the package when you sign the lease

Lease of life

Temporary

Inpermanent

I see these changes truly only in retrospect

Hard to drive the car when you can only look back

But I adapt

That is the fully human function we all have

Is the ability to change to the future

To see what is required and adapt to it

Sometimes I reminisce the past

I open up to it

But only momentarily

There is nothing to hold on to

To move forward with

I just have this moment

It will never be the same

And I have never been here before

But I will do my best

Life

4 Minutes

In 4 minutes I will attempt

To write words

Strung together with

Some meaning

My eyes are stuck to the screen

Gleaming

Written in an attempt to say

What I have postponed along the way

Returning to ritual

Feels good

Yet not unusual

11:57

11:57 The clock reads

Momentary and sedentary

I return to the road

We travel so often

Yet so unfamiliar

Unusual

The hope of unity

A collection of ideas

Almost perfect

But perfect in its imperfections

It has beauty despite moments

Of Lack of direction

Proceed on our journey

To find people

To share moments and peace

This is my idea to bring

Muddle by Technology

Muddle and confusion

Marry the mellow quiet

With ruptured sounds of a digital empress

Defiant of the status quo

Holding on to the last of what was

What we used to know

The cell phone rings

Elbows locked in admiration

Swing around the border

Of the new order

Tech first feeling second

Defiant I remane

But I wonder what the world would be

With no technology

Would we be more advanced

If we were connected by glance

Instead of digital connection

A tacit code of life

Implied by technical lines

We are breakable and weak

In the eye of technology

Return to the Pages

Return to the pages

Settled in and getting away

Too long

Can get contagious

I don’t write

Due to lack of inspiration

Rather I am not writing

Because it has become

A lack of motivation

Unfamiliar sensation

But it is a coal covered jewel

Untouched as the days continue

First the idea sprouts

From mind to fingers

Scatters across the keys and onto the page

I resurrect the beast  laying dormant

Back to writing and enjoyment

With rest comes ideas

Ideas with time

And now it is time to return

To the pages

To the writing burn