Catch-22

"What a lousy earth! [Yossarian] wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go inssane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere. "

Yeah...

the-time-is-come

I just might run naked today and then sleep tonight in the mud. I might paint the carpet in my room bright blue and then light a thousand candles. I might kiss someone passionately or whisper something sincere. I might read a book while curling my toes in delight. There is a possibility I will receive an email or a letter from a good friend. It is tempting to take all the money I have saved and show up on somebody's doorstep. I might buy flowers for someone, maybe just myself. I could fall to sleep with their soft petals on my cheek. I could dance to really loud music in a field of sunflowers where nobody else will find me unless I want them to join me. Today is the day for fighting evil and for hedonistic living. Today my heart wants to split me asunder into a shower of human flesh, real and dying and passionate and essential and enchanting. I want to go up in flames and to fall down laughing at the delightful pain. I want to find something worth dying for and worth living for and then do both today. Today I am filled with desire. And it will not stop until I go quite insane.

"The violin slices life up, into manageable hunks, and the fiddler knows not who he is moving, or cares why people should be moved; his mind is on the end, the extraordinary onus of finishing what's set out for him. Do you imagine him better off than you?" -John Ashbery

Yes, Johnny, I do.