MRIght?

I had to act "anger" today.

That's not necessarily easy because I'm not a particularly angry person. I just don't see the value in it.

Plenty do.

That's not to say I cannot get animated enough for some fuckwit to accuse me of anger if it suits their tactical purposes. There is a certain level of moron that will never know the difference. 

It is the same level as, say, the half-wit who thinks Brexit it is a bad idea, but can't articulate why.

Or thinks that cannabinoids should be legalised because they've never seen the people its gateway has destroyed. The sort of people who are short on experience, short on  memory, short on IQ, or simply opinionated and dis or mis informed. 

In the worst-case scenario, they are angry and malevolent - the very name-calling they accuse others of so, so early, I save till last. 

That is because I believe I can help them with the other things but I must  also accept who they are. And if what they are reaches a level of purity in its anger and malevolence, then even I know my limitations. An act of charity from me at this point will not be seen for what it is. 

And the fact is, at the risk of arrogance, if I'm not going to bother with them I can pretty much guarantee that nobody else is either.

Those broken people perpetuate.
Believe it or not, they even reproduce.

And they reinforce their own misinforcements.

Of course I broke up laughing in my challenge. There was too much paradox in play for the engine not to choke. 

The fact is that people mistake the things that they see in people. They believe that their own opinion is a good enough reason to do that.

It isn't.

It is poor training, in need of correction

It is poor insight, in need of vision. 

It is poor development of skills and a lack of credentials

But they stand amongst us, eating with us, drinking with us, as equals 

Are you going to tell them? No,  you're too scared. 

All the information you need is written in the face of the person you are almost certainly looking at at the time.

It's a code.

And it requires a big part of the brain apportioned to its recognition.
You need to be a superscanner to communicate properly. 

A fancy imaging machine  will tell you how far you are on with that. But they won't book a session No.
They'll assume they're doing just great.

The sort of people I'm talking about would take decades to develop that muscle.

But they are not getting any younger.

The fact is that it is a code.

It's written behind the eyes.

Start learning now and in 30 years... come back... for a conversation.

But of course by then, you won't need to even speak, before it is clear if you can handle it.

So do the wise thing.

Give up now.

And open your mind  instead.

The Living Dead at Teatime

Last week I saw a newspaper a feature article about what they used to call legal highs.

I've seen hundreds  of people high on legal highs and I did not recognise what they were talking about.

The article was effectively talking about a kind of street zombies. It had photographs of men leaning over,  stood still on busy streets in he middle of the pavement with stooped shoulders. 

I didn't recognise this manifestation of the epidemic.

I've interviewed hundreds of people on Spice, Doom,  Pandora's Box etc and I have seen hundreds of people drunk on alcohol both professionally and in the mirror. But I didn't recognise this description.

Until today.

I live in a heavily studented area and at 5pm on a beautifully still and sunny day on my local shopping street was that exact picture. A young man, leaning forward, stooped shoulders, stationary but for a mild stagger an inch forward an inch backwards. 

Not drunk. Not quite. We've all seen drunks. They are more animated. Less, well less zombie-like. 

Somebody walked past him minding his own business. Just as he passed the body animated and shouted. "Fuck Off Dickhead".

And then he as quickly he returned to standby zombie mode again.

I watched him for the next few minutes. 

Before he lurched off.

Like a walking dead.

.

Nearer to Really

At its simplest, living by your religion is living in the 3rd person.

Do something good in your life and you thank your  God for what He has done for you.

See something good in somebody else and you can raise your religious fervour to make you amazed at what God has done with them/for them/ in them.

Don't give anybody any credit.

See something bad and, with enough effort,  you can see the Devil's work and the evil that He is.

And every flower, every sunny thought and every warm day, it's God again. God doing his great things.

For you. His children.

I'm only saying this as I bumped into one minute of a religious channel with some American pastors talking amongst themselves around a big rustic table.

But it struck me that all they were talking about is living by proxy.

Living by proxy isn't a good way to live your entire life.

It might be a good  way to install a few rules.

We all need a little rulebook every now and again. We can copy a few favourable traits in order to make is more resilient.

But at some point we need to grow up. Forget childish things.

Put away the dolls, retire the tooth fairy and  live with responsibility.

Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do, but we must own ourselves.

That has to be the way to live.

I'm not even going to mention the terrorist elements that will dedicate their repulsive  actions to their God. They may even credit their God with giving them the strength to act.

But I'm only mentioning religious terrorism in passing.

Really I'm talking about day-to-day living.

Living really. 

And living real.