“Every lion in the valley has to jump across the ravine once in their lifetime. Every one of them. Not everyone can make it, some lions die here, falling into the flow in the valley. Even so, we take the risk, because this is what we have to do as lions,” said Aaron with pride.
Lily could not understand what Aaron was saying. She kept staring at his mane. Bright orange glowing in the breeze. Why don’t I have something like that? She thought. Continue reading “Lily: A Short Story”
February. The bleakest month of the year that fogs the brain with a haze of liminal confusion between the holiday winter season and the budding of spring. And so the makers of the calendar year with, in an attempt to aggrandize their monetary power (and probably a contract deal with Hallmark, Kay Jewelers, and Hershey’s), conjured up the holiday: Valentine’s Day.
I am running on 1.5 hours of sleep from last “night”. I put that word in quotations because the duration of my Chem-induced insomnia occurred in the early hours of the morning; the hours that you would have bragged about to your friends in middle school because you had dared to defy your body’s need for sleep in an effort to take full advantage of reruns of “iCarly”. I, however, am not bragging, because at 16 years old, I realize that this dark world that we live in has few pockets of light. Those moments are suddenly filled with a warmth and comfort that you have not known since the early days of your childhood on a warm summer day. Those are moments where you think that the birds fly a little higher, the sun shines a little brighter, and music sounds just a bit more magical. These moments are gifts from the universe, and the epitome of these gifts is the supposed 8 hours of pure, unadulterated bliss that come with your daily comatose episodes known as sleep. Continue reading “Delirium”
There is a time honored expression Americans are fond of using: “Money Cannot Buy Happiness.” These words are spoken quickly and without as much as a second thought. As children we are told that family is the one bond that can never be broken, that no power on Earth could ever come between a mother and son, a brother and sister. However, an equally powerful message is one we all learn at an equally impressionable age: money is power. Happiness may not be able to be bought, but money definitely supports happiness and builds its foundation. Money gives us room for our happiness to grow.
I don’t watch too many TV Shows, only Flash, Arrow, and some other DC shows (all of which I am currently not watching at all due to my new show obsessions), but pretty much every Spring, a new bunch of shows start and I find the need to watch some of them. This year I started Powerless, which is mediocre at best, and Riverdale, which is intriguing, yet poorly written. However, I also started a third show this year, which is actually phenomenal.
Continue reading “Legion “Chapter 1” Review”
From the roofs of buildings in the city, any wind creates a droning, ominous tone; a natural siren that constantly reminds the adventurers who dare stand atop the skyscrapers, that nature is a powerful presence. The creations of man, cars, construction vehicles, restaurants, stores, wealth, the sounds of wall street, are all inferior to that drone. Today, on this cool December night, the wind was particularly insistent and demanded to be heard. The concrete walls were vibrating, the buildings slowly swaying like the redwoods in California. Nature demanded to be heard. Continue reading “Newport Slims”
The eternal struggle of human existence is to form viable relationships. In J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield struggles with forming relationships with other people, because he constantly fights with them over who is superior. In war, humans are relentless in their efforts to come out on top. Nobody wants to lose and to feel inferior, which is why neither side is willing to surrender and give up on the struggle, no matter how fruitless the endeavor. Relationships serve as wars of attrition, where one person gains from the weakening of the other. Working through steady erosion, people hope that wearing down the other person will cause them to slowly be annihilated and eventually capitulate. It may be done through a series of open battles where the other person is gradually exhausted or through multiple covert actions that slip in, causing limited mayhem time and time again. Holden’s relationships are the same, constantly spoiled, because the other person feels they must consistently put him down in order to make themselves feel superior. Thus, he turns to children, whose inexperience guarantees his superiority. He is desperate to build a relationship where he can feel equal without surrendering himself. In Catcher in the Rye, Salinger suggests that a viable relationship depends on the perceived equality in that relationship; thus, the majority of relationships fail, because individuals are inherently driven to feel superior. Continue reading “Wars of Attrition: The Futility of Relationships in Catcher in the Rye”
When I eagerly plopped into my seat in the theater last night, to say I was excited would be an understatement. I had just rushed to the showing, nearly late for the beginning, and I had been forced to awkwardly ask a couple to stop making out so they could vacate the seat I had reserved. I had been through all of it, and here I was. As the initial shots played I had to try hard to contain my excitement in little more than goofy and idiotic grins. When I watched the first John Wick last year, my reaction to the opening few minutes had been the exact opposite.
Continue reading “John Wick Chapter 2 Review”
