So give me one good reason Why we need to be like them.

20 ft of twine: $1.25
Half a roll of electrical tape: $1.00
An old steel bar I found in the garage: nothing

The satisfaction from showing corporate America that I don’t need them or their lousy fitness equipment: Priceless

It’s 1:00a.m., and I find I’m doing what I always do this time of night. Sit in bed and listen to the background noise. There’s a strange sense of peace that comes when the world goes to bed. I’m the kind of person that can sit and entertain himself for hours from his thoughts alone. During vacation time, school is out, work is postponed, and friends are far away. What’s left to ponder?

Everything.

I’ve talked to a few old friends as of late; everyone back home seems to have gone crazy. My old acquaintances have been home from missions for a year or two, and they’re all having emotional breakdowns. Not the kind that gets you institutionalized, the long-term kind that tells you your life has no meaning. The kind that warps your future into a big black pit, and all you can do is run. And run you do, from everything and everyone.

Yeah, you’re damn right it’s frightening, and it’s happening to way too many people right now. I’ve been a spectator in the East Tennessee charade for several years, and it bothers me that I can’t observe what’s happening out there with my own eyes. I loath building my reality through second hand accounts, but it’s all I have for the time being.

I’m eternally grateful that my lot was not the lot of my friends. I like to think that people choose their own paths, but all these recent accounts are pointing elsewhere. Why have I been so lucky? Am I smarter? Do I have better genes? Or was I just lucky enough to have parents who loved each other, who loved their kids, and understood the responsibility that comes with raising them? That’s what scares me.

If it is mere luck, where’s the justice? Do I dare ask such questions?