The Author of Last Exit To Brooklyn and Requiem For A Dream whose above mentioned novels were produced into two good, but incredibly depressing feature films has proven himself to be correct in my opinion many times over only now broadcast television has been superseded by social media where a new facade has been created in which everyone is whatever they claim to be because they say so and they have a brand to sell and now we have a generation of kids whose dreams are to be social media influencers and have millions subscribing to their VLOGS. If television made us complacent, computers made us covetous, entitled and even harder to reach though I suspect one way to snap the young out of this would be what will snap most out of the fantasy of being the star of their own TV show and that would be make the kids code or program as they called it when I was in school. The way to snap out of the TV fantasy is simpler. Take a few production jobs and internships and see what really goes on behind the scenes. See how much it sucks being a production assistant on a music video working 16 hours straight for fifty bucks and being treated by some as just some pleb they can order around and then give you a fake "Thanks" at the end of the day if you get one at all.

That is not to say there are not good experiences and places to work for because I worked at some great places while studying in college, but like any place one works whether it is to get experience or just get paid, everyone has worked in places that were good and places they felt were bad. That is part of life. Sometimes the bad times are secret blessings that teach us lessons, help us grow and if we are lucky be grateful for them.

That is not to say the bad times are times where I did not weep or despair, often like a spoiled brat because to a certain extent we all are brats that get smacked with a dose of reality that sometimes leaves us feeling as though it certainly sucked to go through that, had I not experienced that which was unpleasant, I would not be where I am now. So you want to be a YouTube influencer with millions of subscribers then go forth try every aspect of what it takes to get reach that goal and then once you understand that the video trending is simply the tip of an iceberg that took a lot of effort to make and most people will never appreciate how hard you worked to get where you are in order to create a finished product then you can at least separate the fantasy from the reality and decide do you love doing this so much that you can accept the probability of failure and still be grateful because you truly love what you do then at least you have accepted responsibility for your actions. Jerry Seinfeld once said, "You're blessing in life comes when you can discover the torture you can live with." Now, that may sound horrible, but think critically about what he is saying.

First off, he is saying it in a way that on might expect Seinfeld to say it and to a certain extent he would be dishonest to himself if he did not say it in his own words. No one is saying you have to be tortured, but no one is candy coating the reality that we all have our crosses to bare to use my mother's wisdom she used to tell me. You are not a victim. Everything in our lives comes at a certain cost whether that is time or money or something else, we all exchange something for something else of value to ourselves and so long as we do not hurt ourselves nor do we heard others then nobody has a right to judge other than you whether or not you believe in a higher power, which I do by the way, but I respect others points of you enough to know there in this cancel culture, unless we can agree to disagree peacefully we are all doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again because we are not learning. The fantasy has been replaced by a vision and like it or not life has a way of making us learn the difference by rook or by crook.

So it began with the giants who raised you and who you could not imagine ever being their size when your young and then who you think you know better than when you still think you are some kind of immortal until one day you realize if you're lucky that your parents were the best people you have had the pleasure knowing in your life. Not because they gave you everything you wanted. Maybe they could not even give you everything you needed sometimes, but you are not a victim. Your parents were not superheroes. They were humans who loved you unconditionally in a way you may never experience again in this lifetime. That is the true role model. Not the billionaire everyone thinks is a genius just because he or she has money. Intelligence has nothing to do with success and wealth. There are plenty of people who are very successful at what they do, but otherwise you discover they are just predatory or blessed differently. Either way, a highly evolved spiritual being does not covet or judge. They see things as less black and white and more as shades of grey.

My parents died almost a year ago from the Covid Pandemic and you know I am still grieving and learning and while I wish they were alive and things were different, I know how blessed I am in spite of what has happened. There are people who fracture society into us versus them and many have confused facts with agendas or have forgotten that the truth is often confused by our perception. So now we have a new enemy and the enemy is despair. Who has not felt it? It seems like it is being cultivated like some crop being prepared to be culled. I do not pretend to have an answer to the big questions. All I can do is practice on cleaning myself out of this depression and find through my heart and intuition, which can be sharpened, just what it is I should do and here is the truth I know and that is no one can tell you what to do if you don't let them.

Leave it for God to judge, regardless of whether you believe in a personal or an impersonal one. All that matters is that you work on yourself and do not let despair get the upper hand. It feels like we are in a predicament similar to that depicted in The Lord of the Rings where there is no winning possible by force of arms, but yet there is a clear way to defeat the enemy and that includes confronting the one within. We are all ring bearers and never forget it is the best part of understanding storytelling and how it resonates within by how close it comes to the paradox that we are both responsible for our own destiny and yet there is a possibility we will overcome through however invisible it may seem the force that is the will of God like invisible hands. Do not forget faith for there are plenty of things we accept as reality and yet it cannot be seen, touched, smelled or tasted and yet we know in our hearts that these exist and at the same time know that not everything we see is as it seems.

I think the salvation we seek is possible so long as we note that we shall not necessarily get what we want, but we will get what we deserve. Thank you and Namaste.

(C) Copyright 2021 By Mark A. Rivers
All Rights Reserved.