Renaissance of a Reverie

Ever have one of those days where it could not possibly get any worse. From the very start, you have been forced into underground cover because of the tornado that just touched down less than a mile away. But, before you can find any sort of comfort, a tsunami collides with a category 5 hurricane, flooding you out of your shelter. And as you surface to find that the earth has given way to a 9.6 earthquake, the only bright side you can find since the sun never rose at dawn are the most violent and rapid strikes of lightning and the the erupting volcano you had no idea was active, atop the mountain range you never knew existed behind your house.  But, before you completely succumb to the natural disaster that is your life, a random individual tells you how beautiful or intelligent you are, and suddenly there is not a cloud to block a single ray of the sun’s shine in your blue sky, and the  grass has never been greener on the side, and… Your words have the power to make...

Depending on the individual, these numbers will vary quite a bit, however, a quick Google search told me that the average person pays monthly fees of $73 for cellphones, $161 for cable & internet, $479 for a car note, $67 for car insurance, and $235 for health insurance. Compile those costs together, and that comes to one large monthly fee of $1,015 a month, or $12,180 a year. And that is a very linear snapshot of the many things us first worlders spend our money on, as I did not include things like dental, life, or home insurance, etc. Again, per the individual, many of those costs vary, either much higher, or lower. Nevertheless, what is apparent when looking at these numbers is the fact that we have found many unnecessary reasons and ways to trade in our hard earned dollars for services that we do not always need. (I am aware that by law, one must have car insurance, though one can also slash those prices by paying only for liability.) We often blame the rising cost of livin...

Look at the world all around you, and what you will see in nature are a variety of beautiful things. There are sunrises and sunsets, the blue ocean and the blue sky, deep waters of the ocean and the infinite vastness of deep space. Viewed from skyscrapers hundreds of feet up, there are cities lit in manmade light, and in the quiet of nature, wherein light pollution does not touch Earth’s magnificent midnight sky, there are grand displays of celestial bodies, providing just one more example of decoration to a universe that is far from lacking in that facet of existence. If one desired, on the subject of life’s innumerable varieties, volumes of writings to dwarf even the Harry Potter series could be composed, touching on various lifeforms and other things of nature, so I will stop at the aforementioned. What I will not relent on, however, is an admiration for humanity’s diversity, a thing that is not always appreciated as it should be. In this way, I mean nothing of race, skin color,...

No one likes the overachiever. Why? Because he/she makes the  rest of us look bad–or just shines a light to make apparent what we are.  Remember the head of the class, the straight-A student, who doubled as the “teacher’s pet?” If you were not making fun of that person, you probably were that person. If you thought that just because you graduated from high school, people were going to magically mature, and everything would finally be right in the world, you have likely found that you were highly mistaken. After all, with the exception of a few, adulthood is fiction. People grow older. People don’t grow up. But what is popularity, really? “Regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general” is one definition found in a dictionary. Recognition and likability amongst one’s peers, is how I would think to define it. But if you step back far enough to take a panoramic shot of who these people, these peers are, how many of them would you say are excellent at a...