Children of last season’s war
feel entitled to ask for more.
Economy on decline, got to move fast,
get what is mine. What’s become
of the call to stand up and deny
that might makes right. When we have learned
to cleverly disguise by being Green
the way we make sure we are first in line.
Greed is so easily decried
but ever noticed how everyone
wants a little more than their fair share
of any pie. We have modern technology,
reality TV, dances with stars, who names --
after googling I still don’t know,
information at rapid pace about crimes,
wars in places we will never go,
more visuals create a sensory overload.
Planes that go so fast we don’t use them
anymore; so many sports I can’t keep up
with all the scores; music flying around the net,
I go to the stores and don’t want what I can get.
My grandmother always told me manners
were important because they protected everyone’s
dignity. From Simpson’s to Malcolm and all the other
shows, my son’s taught I am an idiot and mom
really never knows. Parents are a laughing stock
whose biggest mistake is having children they learn
to hate. Something has got to give to stop this taking
from destroying my will to live. I believe in people,
think about it for a while. Good neighbors and good
friends are a lot of what makes life worthwhile.
The things you really value are the things you had to earn.
Family is built on what each generation has learned
being passed down to the next so they can move ahead
without repeating all the mistakes we have already
found a way around or a better path to take. Respect
is earned and love is given to oil the gears it takes
to raise children who understand that you learn to value
yourself the most by how much you help those around you
feel better about the life they live. So I ain’t got no cable
and my car is second hand, no theater surround, but
when you need someone to lend a hand I am available.
The woman with cancer gets her driveway cleared of snow,
the older couples car get tires changed when the flat shows.
Can’t change the whole world cause I don’t hold it in my hands,
but I hold as much of it in my heart as I can.
10:52 AM
10-22-09
Alexandria, VA
Author notes
I wonder, did I get the message across?
Please tell me what you think, what it makes you feel, how you are moved.
Comments
1 - 21 of 21
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I so agree with your title...
The mind tends to saunter through life at will! The heart has a course that sets itself when passion erupts and spills onto the surface of reality. We all are free by omission. We are all free-spirited, free-willed, free to be, but we can become prisoners of whatever controls us, has the upper hand in our flailing to survive.
What you've written here is real and surreal. We have become enemies of those closest to us. Our children need us for leadership. They need us to give them the raw and the real, even if it hurts.
Yes, You can change the world! Your words are impactual. They impress upon the reader a sense of knowing, showing, forgiveness, and HOPE! I love this and relate to it with all my spirit. Thank you for these words!
Always Loving YOU ♥
Renee
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We have made an idol out of youth. They in turn behave as if they are entitled to what they want. We, the parents, have created narcissistic little monsters. We have convinced the businesses that all we want to do is spend money on our children, for our children, and as our children wish. Read the "Narcissism Epidemic by Twenge & Campbell. They will give you not only a precise, insightful, scientific description of the problem, but answers and solutions to the problem as it stands. The other idea is one of personal responsibility. Any freedom we do not use responsibly, we lose. Any one we don't use somehow disappears. One thought, what happened to all those kids in the fifties who couldn't wait to be adults and change the world? They don't seem to have survived.
Thanks for dropping by. I always enjoy it when you stop for a visit.
Love,
Tom B.
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I still say bullshit to the title, Tom
freedom may have to be attained, worked for;
but you cannot put a price on it.
ever.
I like this write better-whether you changed anything since first comment or not. Could be my own frame of mind to
love,
jin -
This is a very strong, meaningful, and not to mention true poem.
If everyone in this world had an outlook like yours, the world would be an almost perfect place. People are losing sight of what is really important in life and your example with TV Shows is definitaly one of the reasons.
Being the age that I am, I've lived to see the end of one generation and the beginning of another and it is surprising to see just how much the world has changed in so little time.
You gave me a laugh when you mentioned the bit about dances with stars. There is not one person on that show whose name I could recognize.
Thanks for sharing this fantastic work of art, and keep them coming :-D
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This is one of my occasional rants. The funny thing is they are part of my writing process. It helps me get my ideas and thoughts out where I can see them and then I can go back and work on pieces to get them right or written to they really touch the soul. This one was good enough for me to post, most are so bad thejoin my ever growing collection in the circular file.
Thanks for enjoying this.
Peace,
Tom B. -
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Whatever gets those wheels spinning. One of my little habits, especially when I'm blocked, is to listen to a song and write down the lyrics as I hear them. This can be especially difficult if your hands don't move a million miles an hour, but it definitaly gets me thinking about the meanings of these songs which sometimes opens doors in my mind.
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Yes,
great message. Raised 5. Baby is now 24. None arrested, drugged or gone wrong. As a parent, I think I got my point across. Great write, great message poet.
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Yes you did. What is worth having is earned. The hardest thing for my kid to get. He is blessed/cursed with being super smart and having come easy what is hard for others. I keep looking for things where he will have to invest a large part of himself and struggle to arrive at the goal. Thanks for stopping by.
Peace,
Tom B.
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Thanks for sharing that piece of reality. It should bring light to each and everyone of us. UNT
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We sold our soul to China. Geesh, our economy is so bad, and China could demand their payment anytime. I see that as dangerous territory. You got your point across clearly.
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It is, just not, that we sold our soul, but we did it for trinkets. We are so currently narcissistic that immediate gratification is more important than long term debt. I have a book you might like to read. "The Narcissism Epidemic" by Twenge and Campbell. It is articulate,well documented and gives language to what you have often felt but couldn't put into words.
Love,
Tom B.
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I see Graeme is moving you in that direction that makes you question if all is right in your world? Perhaps not the realization of him growing older and having his own idea's but that no matter what you do or say he is going to argue with it, sounds a bit like what I did to you when I came to visit..we will all share idea's and visions and have our own opinions on what 'free' is and like Jin below you know I know that i live in the perpetual state all the time and a rebel against what anyone tells me is different or normal. Because normal to me is a risk and a small death and insanity always throws up so many more possibilities that may or may not work. But then that's why you enjoy my company C
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Graham is finally waking up and seeing he has certain responsibilities. They are part of what makes him a contributing member of this household. He is, still, too much under the sway of the denigrating humor that passes for comedy these days. But, as he learns the hurt an pain it causes, he is less and less attracted to it. All the rest is his world and fine by me.
We live in a society, where we have forgotten or take as our right the perks that come from living in a free world. A lot of people don't have that privilege. I ain't talking about being normal or being different cause you don't want to feel cages when they loom. No problem at all. But you think about other people and act in a way that says you care. You have no time for bullies, have no countenance for rude behavior. You would not think of taking advantage of someone helpless nor feel that people have to make exceptions for you when they won't for anyone else, even if you don't like it. All of that is part of the responsibility of being free. There are girls who posted a video of them beating up a girl for her coat on Utube. It was more important to get fifteen minutes of infamy than admit or feel guilty for doing something wrong. One of the girls comments summed up all the others, "She should of known not to do that, wearing something we would want. It is disrespecting us." The guy who shot all the people at VA Tech sent a press release to the news at the local station before he left his house that day. These are all signs of narcissism. Nobody should think they are that special that rules don't apply to them. But people said they shouldn't put Paris Hilton in jail because we need her for entertainment value.
I should stop. But you know how protective I am. Guess I am to prone to be the oldest brother no matter how old I go.
Love,
Tom B.
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Bravo!
I can hear you loud and clear, but what i hear is your heart hurting for the ones who need.
You feel the suffering and see the greed. Life should be simplier shouldn't it my friend sadly it is not the world is messed up bad!
People are messed up bad!
Your poem expresses a need to fix it and all we can do is what we can.
My dear it's a start even if it starts in your home and for your friends.
This speaks loud love!
Okay a typo here go should be got
So I ain’t go no cable
and my car is second hand, no theater surround
Love this cause it is you:
Can’t change the whole world cause I don’t hold it in my hands,
but I hold as much of it in my heart as I can.
Love,
~Lisa~P
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Thanks
I figure we are supposed to treat each other with respect, understand it is not all for me and screw the other guy, making obscene amounts of money because you skirt the edges of criminal behavior as financier, a feeling of entitlement, just, cause you got told you are special. Of course, I am sure you have heard this before. I am no saint, I don't give up my worldly possessions and work with the war torn starving in Darfur. But, I respect everyone's right to a sense of dignity, to have what little or much they have treated with respect even when it looks like trash. I live up to my standards as I am sure that you do. I guess I just get frustrated by the amount of what I now know to be narcissistic behavior I see going on in our society.
Love, Tom B.
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ps- freedom IS free, its a state of mind.
that's what you would say to me, I know
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Tom, your message comes across fine and good, but the rhyme just didnt work for me. If I can find and pick up the pace, then it starts to feel like a rant towards the middle, the end feeling more or less like "this is why I'm the exception"...we already know you've written this message from the heart, obviously one without the ability to have a heart would not be bothered to take notice-but I cannot go away without the feeling that you're drawing the line between "you" and "them"...does that make sense?
I do agree with you on some points, others don't really matter...one way or the other, the light you shine is still here. Love to you always,
jin
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Freedom isn't free. We earn our right to it every day by the way we act towards one another. I, just, finished a book called "The Narcissm Epidemic" that puts into words so much I have been aware of. This sense of entitlement that goes on. Plus I hate humor that denigrates and puts down other human beings. If I watch what passes for humor on TV, all fathers are idiots, and mothers are conniving bitches that only want they can get or the only voice of reason to be listened to but because they are woman nobody cares. Children run the household and are misunderstood and show no respect for any one. No one earns a place of respect from experience an age because the message that is sent is the elderly are all nags.
I realize that this is a rant in the end and normally it would find a circular file. But, I figure I should post it so I am forced to keep working with the ideas it contains until I get it beat down to the essentials. I am not really good at rewrites beyond proofing and minor word changes. Otherwise I keep working an idea looking for the perfect crystal vase of words to hold the blossom of ideas and feelings. This is one that is going to take some time. Thanks for bearing with me, I figure this is one way we impose on our friends, by sharing the fragileness of our beginnings without apologies.
Love,
Tom B. -
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"freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
what I know is I could not be who I am now without the baboons I call my parents, and especially the mistakes I saw them make with my own eyes.
I remember a time when my mother actually got the year of my birth wrong, and said I was born in '69...and all this time I thought I had been born in 1970. I went around for a whole year thinking my mother was not only crazy, but she couldnt even remember something so easy as the year her child was born. I did not believe another word from her for a very long time.
Now I hear it from my own kids...usually starts with but you said...and ends with a slamming of the door exclamation. My kids are both under ten, and spanking them is becoming a thing of the past. Once in a while though, I have to remind them that whether or not I am wrong, I am still their mother, and they will respect that, even if for no other reason. I am slowly losing this war, but I win some battles-and that's enough for me.
love,
jin -
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"Freedom ain't worth nothing, but it's free. "
That's true for that kind of freedom.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, chief justice, said a man's freedom to swing his fist ended at another man's nose. We are not entitled to swing our fists. We are not entitled to drive a car. As long as we exercise our freedom with responsibility and remain conscious that there are time when our good must take second place to the community's good, it works.
Love,
Tom B.
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"freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"
what I know is I could not be who I am now without the baboons I call my parents, and especially the mistakes I saw them make with my own eyes.
I remember a time when my mother actually got the year of my birth wrong, and said I was born in '69...and all this time I thought I had been born in 1970. I went around for a whole year thinking my mother was not only crazy, but she couldnt even remember something so easy as the year her child was born. I did not believe another word from her for a very long time.
Now I hear it from my own kids...usually starts with but you said...and ends with a slamming of the door exclamation. My kids are both under ten, and spanking them is becoming a thing of the past. Once in a while though, I have to remind them that whether or not I am wrong, I am still their mother, and they will respect that, even if for no other reason. I am slowly losing this war, but I win some battles-and that's enough for me.
love,
jin
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