The Attic

2020! The year everyone became a fucking expert in everything. Science? Check. The Economy? Check, check. Religion? Yup, that one too. Health? Yup...no subject is left unturned. And those connoisseurs may not come with credentials to back them up but they do have a keyboard and a password and that’s all that counts! 

The Internet. What a double edged sword. Yes, you guessed it we’re talking social media today...among other things. 

Conspiracy Cletus knows the ‘Rona is a hoax because his favorite lopped sided show told him so...so of course he knows more than you and he wants YOU to know that he knows more than YOU therefore you should know too and so on and so forth...Illuminati. 

God came down and had a chat with Christian Christina and all her cronies and told them as long as they went to church, Christ would protect them. They’d have a V.I.P pass to the pearly gates. Unlike the rest of us, staying home to save others. They are not worried about you or me, just themselves and their holy roller needs. They omitted that part of the book they  always like to reference to about false idols and being consumed by selfish greed...because it didn’t fit into their lives and accommodate their needs. 

Money Mike who knows nothing about the economy because he’s always been rich, can tell you from a financial standpoint that his opinion his correct regardless if it’s based in fiction or in fact. He knows the market like the back of his own hand and if you take his advice and you’ll end up with beachfront property in Arizona. So Enjoy! I hope you like the desert. 

Health Guru Heather, who’s always sick will tell you this is the ‘seasonal flu’...yet this seasonal flu has lasted since December and we are now in April and she’s never taken a precaution against any illness her whole life. But this lady knows what’s up and if there ever was a person that did, it’s ole Health Guru Heather. “Wash your body with chlorine and you should be fine.” 

Political Paul who always voted for one side and only pays attention to what that side has to say...is an expert on all things government...he exercises his wealth of wisdom and his amendment rights on a daily basis. His favorite, the 2nd. He’ll share his opinion freely whether it’s unprompted or unwarranted. At a party, by the office cooler...or out to dinner with the family...anywhere...you name it...this guys’ got a political statement and now you can read his politically charged rants with your coffee and toast, your sandwich and soda, your dinner with a side of Paul’s point of view...and then before bed...until you block his ass or finally hit unfollow. 

Teacher Tammy that’s allowed her children every excuse in the book to act out in school, to turn in assignments late, to repeatedly blame someone else instead of pointing the finger her way still holds the virtue that her child is the saint. “Woe is me, here’s a post....feel sorry...all of you...woe is me. There’s never two sides to any story, just one and it’s mine. I have no time to correct the errors of my ways. This stay-at-home order is bullshit.” Interpretation: I’ve created assholes and I can’t teach them a thing! Please send help or wine. 

This list is endless and tiresome and aren’t you tired of it too? Because I’m fucking exhausted. 

You know...it’s the not Covid-19 pandemic that’s encouraging me to write. It’s the human race. It’s you people! It’s every asshole out there that thinks they know everything when in fact...they know nothing. 

We know nothing! 

Absolutely. Fucking. Nothing. 

All we ever have is experiences and assumptions. 

Hell, this blog is based in opinions. So take it with a grain of salt. I too never claimed to have all the answers nor would I ever dare..but at this point...I rather interpret my cat’s meows as factual knowledge than half of the ‘knowledge’ being spewed on the internet nowadays. 

Shit...I say nowadays like this just started happening? Like this hasn’t be a reoccurring trend for years on end. 

Free speech, bitches! Free speech. 

....more like you’re talking out of your ass right now and it’s making me think the ‘Rona taking us all out might not necessarily be a bad thing. At least the planet would have a fresh start. 

Opinions in general are like assholes...we all have one and unfortunately some of us are one. An asshole that is! And, yes. I have been that asshole. I’m not ashamed to admit it...and that’s why I’m not ashamed to talk about. I learned from those mistakes though...those less than stellar moments made a better person. I got humbled. I got my head off my shoulders. I stopped running my mouth and started to listen. I became an adult. 

Now it’s your turn...YES...you in the back. I’m calling you out. You see...I am worn out. It’s time for you to learn the lessons too. 

So start with this...Please.....do us all a solid...and shut 👏🏼the 👏🏼fuck 👏🏼up! 

You’re not helping. 

What you’ve “heard” has run its gamut through the human chain of telephone. What started out as, “Suzy has ten fingers and toes.” Turned into “Suzy has five heads and twelve houses in Acapulco, Mexico.” 

Yea, remember that game? This is kinda like that except it’s more lethal and dangerous than some distorted version of the truth. No Suzy doesn’t have five heads nor does she own property in a tropical homestead. Hell, she’s never even left her damn state...but she is just as susceptible to this virus that could crush her and people she surrounds herself with flat...in a snap. If she doesn’t pay attention. If she’s not careful. If she doesn’t get smarter about her choices. 

Learn, reflect, change...be different..in a better way..than you were yesterday. 

This isn’t that hard to do, people...it just takes the first admission! 

Take notice to what this pandemic is doing as a whole-not just negatively but positively. See the forest for the trees....because for once in an extremely long time you can actually see the fucking trees. Literally and metaphorically speaking. 

Life is tough enough. For all of us. So suck it and stop making it worse. Especially in the social media sector. 

Quite frankly, I wonder when all of this is said and done, how tired of technology and social feeds we’ll all be? I, for one, am getting there. 

I’m finding myself having to take longer breaks from the social media mayhem more than ever before. Is it because so many people are home now and this has become their only outlet? No one says you need to come out of this an artist or singer or having built a whole new level to your home only using one tool. Just do something that isn’t feeding into radical and detrimental ideals. I’m finding myself turning to music, books and writing...just to quiet the noise of harsh realities mixed in with ridiculous people. 

I’m finding myself sitting on my porch to clear my mind as best as I can. I’m cleaning my house to calm my space. Anything that keeps me away from taking an hammer to this said device or bashing my head into a wall. 

Staying home doesn’t equate to losing your damn mind. It’s not a valid excuse to pick up the mouth hobby of verbal diarrhea. Find something more productive.    For your sake but for the love of God, ours...the rest of us who here sitting and suffering just like you! 

Technology is great...don’t get me wrong. I am all over the social feeds. I have to be. I use it for work, to share my blog, to display my photography and to relax. It is what it is but some of you say the damndest things. Things I’m sure you’d never have the cojones to say without the protection of a screen. I’ve also never claimed to be one of those people okay with wanting to stay in that cabin in the middle of nowhere without at least some WiFi. I always said no...then again if a million dollars was on the line...I’d make that shit happen. I’d never sleep because being in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no WiFi or power, for that matter, is harder than you think. I’ve been there, done that and this is the exact reason I say...I’ll never do it again unless you paid me too. 

The internet meme however was to show how solitude and quiet were desired by so many yet here we are...here’s that chance and most are losing their goddamn minds...over solitude and quiet time. Over being forced to take a time out. 

Anne Frank probably thinks we’re all a bunch of whiny, spoiled babies. The ultimate ‘back in my day’ shame! And she’d be right. We are acting like a bunch of toddlers who have heard the word “no” for the first time ever. It’s tragic to see and watch and I’m pleading with all you to stop the damn madness. 

If Anne Frank could do this, we can do it too. Lest we forget...she had nothing and we have more than we need. We. Can. Fucking. Do. This. 

Now...right now...is your chance to learn what peace can do for the mind. Now is the perfect opportunity to let go of all the hype, breathe, and come back to Center. 

You want an avenue to express your opinions, do what I do and start a blog!!!  Go buck wild. Then give the world the option to press the link to your inner most thoughts if they want to. Lol. I get it. This is my soapbox...or at least it has become one more recently. 

It’s turned into a space to speak candidly and openly about all that is and has been going on. 2020 has kept me on my fucking toes, global pandemic aside. So I understand the need for self-expression. You should have that right and creative space, it just needs to be in a designated area...where the rest of us aren’t forced to listen to it. It’s a choice and you might say, “Well, I have the choice to scroll on by or turn the social media off!” To that I reply...I do and I have but why do I always need to make the changes but you and the rest of the folks sucking down the Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs never has to alter a single habit? I’m not going tit for tat but it is something marinate on. Discretion isn’t a bad thing. Not always saying what comes to your mind doesn’t make you weak. It makes you smart. These are tricks of the trade...adulthood...you know? 

This blog didn’t start out as a way to wade through this wacky river ride we’re all on where the guy in the back who should be rowing is picking his nose and the girl next you is trying to fish...and oh yea, the guy upfront is standing up and oh shit the rapids are right there...we’re all fucking doomed!!! 

No, it’s creation began after the buzz of traveling for a year wore off. It was fluffy and happy and praising new found energy but then life...my life...exploded...and then the whole damn planet exploded...all before my very eyes...all within weeks of one another. 

Everyone and everything coming to a pause. Every movement abruptly stopping. Like the game of musical chairs when the music comes to a halt and we’re all scrambling for a seat so we don’t get tagged out. 

My thoughts going from a rejuvenated life and its next adventure to What the fuck just happened? Because why the fuck just happened. 

We’ve been duped into thinking that life had to been done a certain way in order to live it. In order to have a chance at it....and that’s not the case. Despite all the crazy...this crazy has a point. 

Just yesterday, my city finally realized our overwhelmingly and increasingly large homeless population clustered in the city parks or on the city streets wasn’t conducive for combating a viral crisis spreading like wildfire. Low and behold, shelters were created! How curious? I was under the assumption that these beggars were a bane on society and humans would rather step over these people to get to their next IG/vlogging location than ever reaching into their wallets to pull out that all mighty dollar they are so desperately clinging to. “Mine! Get a job.” ...because finding employment that can look past your lack of address or owning something decent to wear or inability to even shower is so easy to come by. 

Here me now! No person wakes up one day and says, “Hmmm....you know what sounds peachy...going rogue. This nice slab of concrete will do. I’ll start here. Next up...a cardboard sign.” 

That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. 

How does one become homeless you might ask? Well, for starters...hard knocks! After that, it’s a trickling effect of survival and desperation. Along with an ever increasing cost of living matched up with an inadequate pay wage. And to make this salad ready to serve, insufficient medical care backed by addiction. “Here take this pill to counteract that pill and then after that take this pill to contradict that one.” A fucking hamster wheel bureaucratic bullshit and red tape. 

But now we have a facility that can house 600 people. It’s not first come, first serve. It’s not only open at night. It comes with portable showers, food to eat and a possible address! Yet there’s nowhere to go except to a place of wishful thinking. This could have been an option all along. 

School districts are offering laptops to those in need when before a classroom would rely on sharing a few...unless you were that better school in that other district right across the way. What a coincidence? My understanding was we always had limited supplies. Schools didn’t need basic resources and up to date gadgets or books. Teachers didn’t need to be paid like the wealthy do. Their job didn’t come with fame, fortune, celebrity or power...it just came with the responsibility of educating your children and what does that mean in the grand scheme of opportunities for the chosen few? You mean we always had these laptops available but it took a pandemic to come off of them? Better late than never, I guess? 

Domestic Abuse shelters are seeing an influx of battered partners seeking refuge and safety. Laws finally fighting in their favor...because what we don’t need is more injuries or death added to the mounting count but how come it took the world falling apart to see these individuals mattered? Their bruised and beaten bodies signaling to be saved but the S.O.S always ignored...until now. Until this very moment where are capabilities of saving lives are shining through. An example of how it should be! 

Gas is cheaper. Funny how that works? Airline tickets are affordable. How amazing this turn of events. You mean these prices could have been this low before ironically we had nowhere to go? You mean it’s not just Indigo on her 20th retreat of the year. 

“I’m sending ‘love and light’ while I do yoga poses on an exotic beach somewhere. I know you don’t get the message because all you see is my bare ass and this pretty background...but this is ‘self care’ for all my wealthy bitches out there.” 

A bunch of us already knew that traveling was feasible and crucial and we traveled far and wide...a million and one of us crowding that quiet place to get the perfect photographed shot. Fuck the sign that says: No Foot Traffic Allowed. 

Rules, schmules...you can’t tell us what to do and just for that...I’m leaving this piece of trash to prove that ‘Defiance’ is my middle name. First name, Billy. Last name, Badass. 

Food equals in price. That fancy organic bread is the only type left. Slash the prices so we don’t have grocery store fightsies! 

We could have been doing this from the get go but we decided “Nah, that would mean...food isn’t for profit and what an insane idea that would be.” 

Nations that were once enemies are now supporting each other. Countries are stepping in to help cities on the opposite side...differences ceasing and desisting because we’re all fighting the same dam raging monster outside. Which begs the bigger question, if it was this easy to put all the shit aside why wasn’t it this easy before all this? 

These are the things we should be discussing. Not this is a hoax, a 5G Tower did this, let’s have a COVEE Challenge and lick things. Not why can’t I go to my favorite park or church service, or yadda, yadda, yadda...I’m a disgruntled human being. 

Everything had to be taken away because We Can’t Have Nice things! And even when we do, we want more and treat what we have like shit. 

  

🎼🎼 It's time we stop.
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.🎼🎼 

Buffalo Springfield. Dec. 5th, 1966. 

We’ve had our heads up our asses for much too long. Did the bare minimum and accepted all the shit we were fed. We took the participation trophy without breaking a sweat. Without thinking about how it would impact our futures. We were given an inch, but decided we wanted a fucking ocean. So easy this all was. Why not? Makes sense to me...because we’re humans...self-involved, self-righteous, self-entitled, know-it-all humans. 

What happened to critical thinking? What happened to willingness and know how? What happened to moxie? What happened to manners? What happened to empathy and sympathy and kindness...what happened to it all? 

Did these disappear when we turned words into hashtags and sentences into 150 character blurbs? Did these dip out when we decided we were King Shit? Did these check out when our royalty became a casualty, when are attitudes were more harmful than the looming threat of a deadly disease. 

Did the Universe and Nature just go tell us all to fuck right off! 

“You created this mess, now YOU clean it up! Clean it Up!” Said the Universe to Nature and then Nature yelled back to us. 

What happens when the Coronavirus ends? Do we go back to our cutthroat conditioning? Do we forget all about that one moment in time where we took care of everyone regardless if they were family or foe? Where we made whatever possible because we were all despondent in all the same ways? 

We have been firmly planted in the UpSide Down. This place is gross and dingy and dark and depressing and although I know Utopia truly doesn’t exist, the parallel is a wonderful reminder of how things can actually be. 

I keep saying, we’ll get back to normal soon enough but maybe normal isn’t the solution anymore...because....normal hasn’t been working. Normal has become the new bullshit. 

We need to grow from this devastation or the message has been lost entirely. No more participation trophies or sent prayers. No more thinking we’re immune to fragilities and vulnerabilities. That ego is only digging a deeper hole. That ego is what got us here in the first place. 

These wrongs we were making...there’s no ruse to be had. Just a repercussion of the choices we have made. We are on restriction!

Hindsight is 2020...because life can be better...and we know this...and because with that statement comes clarity...and we’re seeing this. 

When we all come out of our own version of Anne Frank’s attic...may we finally reach that ‘a-ha’ moment. May we finally make past behaviors no longer a part of  future actions and may our new found hindsight become one of our most valuable lessons. 

I leave you with this...a quote from Anne Frank’s diary. A girl who can teach us a few things about struggles and strife and never wavering when it came to decency. A girl with whom I wish we’d all stop disappointing! 

We’ll make you proud Anne....or at least I am hoping. Stay safe and smart and turn social feeds off...read Anne’s book instead. 

“What is done cannot be undone but one can prevent it from happening again.”  Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl.