Year book photos

I can't pretend to be someone I'm not
simply, because I have no idea what “what I am” would consist of.
I can guess, I can point at my past and say,
“here! Here I am!” But really those are just year book photos from high school.
They tell me I had brown hair, and trouble smiling for mechanical 30 milli meter eyes.
If anything,
that uncomfortable half-smile tells me who I'm not.
If that was where I was, then where I am now must be different.
I have moved on since then: now I know what doesn't work.
And so, everything in my past
has become an explicit guideline for who I shouldn't be.

You can take it with you

I do not advocate consumerism.
but
Let no one say there is something defective with the massive consumption of objects that fulfill only fleeting desires.
A cup of coffee. A book. A movie. A music track. A cheese burger.
Yes, they may be manufactured cravings, by vindictive corporate entities.
But their consumption has come to represent something greater:
The struggle for what is desired, and what is wanted.
A reassurance that we can be more than the bare minimum.
and leave with more than we came with.
because
Although, by definition, we may live our lives
strictly with what we need,
to live on need alone
is merely surviving.