Flames in the Labyrinth
Poetry/Prose
Bright lights, loud voices and even louder promises of riches and status that entice (or at least, are supposed to)
Pretty corporate offices with floor to ceiling windows and alluring city views
“Haste makes waste,” they say, but hasty wins at the expense of innocent people and other sentient beings are still appreciated– and commonly expected
I guess they only shame you for being fast in the cases where it slows down the dollars
They fault you for savoring and feeling, critically thinking in ways where people are considered before profit
There is more to life than order
What’s the point of order without morality? What kind of morality exists without ethics?
What purpose is there of order without humanity?
The fast life must be for everyone and if not, there must be something wrong with you
“Lazy and incompetent” they label you if you can’t keep up
“Pointless and stupid” they say of educational pursuits beyond what you can put on paper to impress and dominate
Each lazy person escapes to a private island
Their cries having a safe haven to be expressed
Grief having a place to exist
Wildness having room to breathe
Souls having breadth to shine
Laughter accepted and encouraged to be as loud or as soft as they naturally are, no filtering required
Creativity is a lifestyle and permission is granted for making to be more than a capitalistic means to an end
If only the outcasts knew each other and let their cynical guards down,
If only each of them let Hope turn them around to discover that there is more than only their individual self inhabiting the same island
They would know that the beaches exist beyond their psyches and that their hands and feet are capable of playing with sand and water
Multiple voices of the their Source exist at odds with profit hungry demons, validating each other
You still need people to be independent
Don’t let the myth of disconnection as empowerment delude you into powerlessness
Their souls would find strength in mingling, being able to find each other in mutually agreed nakedness
What kind of life is one without connection to self and others?
Where we are gatekept from nature–from fresh grass and wise trees, the radiance of the sun and glow of the noon, glimmers of the stars– and ultimately from ourselves in favor of pixels and harsh graphics on screens? Where digital doppelgangers and short videos replace phone calls and in-person intimacies?
If only their souls became acquainted instead of simply crossing paths to keep up with the hustle and bustle, being expected to be too busy to acknowledge and converse with another person beyond the bounds of business professionalism geared towards hitting quotas and making sales
Too busy to be human
If they only knew what existed in the warmth of company where you don’t have to simply perform so that you can pretend to belong instead of experiencing the real thing
Where empathy is genuine and not practiced, eagerness to know another is from a desire of curiosity and not control
What’s it like to “be” instead of performing? To pursue connecting with others instead of trying to impress them?
Each person would let themself light a torch in the darkness in the first place, to guide them until they found another soul with a torch holding a flame, too
They would exchange bright stark white lights for naturally lit fires
They would gather together, joining hands and creating light, knowing that there are others to hold onto in the first place
It’s not that the flame is something you must force–
It’s been inside of you all along.
You’ve only been conditioned to believe in its nonexistence
Stop gatekeeping yourself from yourself
It’s not that you are the only one feeling this way–
That’s what you were taught to believe.
Stop gatekeeping yourself from the world
