humanity
For better or for worse, relationships reveal the core of the human condition.
Must Be More To Life
Growing Up I lived in a crime-filled neighborhood. There were drugs, prostitutes, gunshots, robbery, and several other illegal activities. Most of the people around me wanted at least part if not all the action. I remember walking to the corner store in the middle of the day seeing a dog being hanged. Likely it lost a dog fight. I went home and did not even mention it. Probably because that was scary, I was only in elementary. All this was the norm. I was not educated about the dangers of these illegal activities. The homes in my neighborhood were falling apart on the outside and inside. Vacant lots made a good place to play football with the boys. I was a tomboy as a young girl. I was influenced by my surrounding as I began making my own decisions. Alcohol was easy to get, and I did consume in my early teens. Drinking liquor at that age was not frowned upon by the adults around me. Even back then I turned to drinking to escape reality. I would want to dress like the promiscuous girls on my block. Not fully understanding the message I was sending out to the world. By age 15 I had become one of those promiscuous girls. I did not use my body nor charm to make money. My first of many jobs was working at McDonalds. Waiting on the public bus late night by myself was too dangerous, one of the reasons I quiet. Fights and being threatened at gun point were just part of the culture. I witnessed shooting, intense arguments and fist fights right in front of our house. I did not know fighting in such a manner was not considered a social norm. When I turned 16, I got my first tattoo, my mom got one too. I continued getting tattoos till I was 24. The pain became something that took my mind away from my real pains in life, at least till the tattoo stopped hurting. I would get away from home and my neighborhood as often as I could by age 16. I knew I did not want that lifestyle. I would get to leave permanently on a short notice. Our home went into foreclosure. If I was not so busy being gone, I might have noticed sooner. My senior year of high school was spent moving between a friend and family. During my first year of college I lived with my oldest sister. My big escape came when I joined the Army Reserves. I knew there, "Must Be More To Life," than where I grew up.
By Mentor Design and Decor6 years ago in Humans
The Hug
The Hug And just when I thought I couldn’t get any angrier he hugged me. Struggling up first against as embrace I began to resist. And then I just released, released all the anger, all the insecurity, all that pent-up tension. Allowing the embrace to envelop me like a cool sea, when you jump in on a hot summer day. Every sense surrounded and penetrated with the feeling of relief. After so many fights with former lovers, spanning time, places, and reasons. He found the one way to calm the storm which is me. With calm confidence and love he walked right up to the tempest and hugged me. That night as I lay in bed next to the tamer of wild beasts wrapped in his arms, head resting in a comfortable nook all lovers know (the hinge with the arm joins the chest) I began to wonder… Wonder about the world in the state of things, and then a simple but provoking thought entered my mind. What if the world just needs a hug. Not a hello wonderful to see you hug, or a man I love and I’m gonna miss the hell out of you airport hug, but the kind of hug that gets inside you revolutionize how you feel. How do you see yourself. A hug that makes you realize there has to be a better way to say the things you need to say. A hug that makes a teacher want to go out and teach those who do not know any better. Bridging the gap between the ignorant and learned. A hug that makes a warrior of any kind, soldier or gorilla look at their rifle and think this seems like a bit fucking much, little overkill wouldn’t you say ( ironic attempt at a pun, totally intended) . A hug that makes the disenfranchised, the marginalized, and they all too often trodde upon hope that opportunity and a true environment to thrive isn’t an optimistic pipe dream but a tangible reality. A hug that grabs humanities bullshit anger by the arms and says enough there is a better way. So we need to hug you say, no shit. We need a hug in the worst fucking way, but the real question is how. How do we hug ourselves and begin to heal, how do we hug ourselves so completely, that much needed change can be real. ( Whoa ho ho I was a poet and didn’t even know it switching to rhyme at an appropriate time, sorry I digress )
By Maria Atlan6 years ago in Humans
you had me at chicken wings
Hi to everyone that is about to tune into my story, i'm sure you are thinking how does the famous and legendary singer OSH manage to fit into my story of chicken wings and a mystery man? well, if you keep reading you are about to discover a very unique story that i have to tell you all, you will not regret the next 5-10 minutes you're about to give me.
By BoBo Mellor6 years ago in Humans
The Last of Her Kind
About 35 miles outside of Phoenix lives an old woman with a very grandmotherly aura. If she misses your call, her raspy voicemail message says “Hi, it’s Mary Durand. Please forgive me for not being able to answer your call right now, but I swear things will get better soon.” She’s a hippie, or at least a former one, one of the dwindling number of people in the United States who spent portions of the Sixties and Seventies fighting injustice and protesting the war in Vietnam, desperately trying to bring peace to this violent and vile world from the bottom up, who involved themselves in a countercultural revolution which made its way into history starting in Haight-Ashbury. Safe to say, she is no fan of Donald Trump, and got a good, cough-filled laugh out of me referring to him as ‘the Cheeto with a hairpiece on Pennsylvania Avenue.’ She’s lived one hell of a life, to say the least; she’s been engaged to be married three separate times –all of her fiances died before their wedding day–, she spent four years in a convent before deciding the Catholic Church could stick its dogma right back up its ass, and finally settled on a career by taking a job as a social worker who works with convicts on death-row, fighting for life in prison rather than the chair. Her career is now in its twilight, and her legacy of legally battling the death penalty in the US is coming to a close.
By Christopher Handwerger6 years ago in Humans
To Better Days and My Return to the Movies After COVID-19
Every day, amid the threat of the virus, I find ways to stay positive and think of the future. That's not easy for those of us with pre-existing lung conditions. I have asthma and I live with the specter of COVID-19 and the damage it does to the ability to breathe. It's terrifying, I have been on a ventilator and I know the horror of not catching your breath.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Humans
A Long-Awaited Perfect Day
Ah, the day that we've all been waiting for. The day that seems so close yet out of reach. The day in which we all want to run out the house and hug our loved ones. For me that day will be full of the tiny little things that before seemed so insignificant but now mean the world.
By Ellie Browne6 years ago in Humans
Stay Safe
In many senses this lockdown has been an unbelievably trying time for the whole world, bringing boredom, misery and in many cases anxiety amongst other mental health issues. But also, what it has given us, is the time to wipe our emotional windscreen that has been misty for a while and see just how much we've been taking life for granted. Losing many entities that have given us leisure, fun and freedom. Just a few would include the fun of splashing in refreshingly cold water in a swimming pool or the sea in the summer and allowing our skin to soak up the sun, or going out with your mates to sink a pint or many in your local boozer to the sound of your favourite tunes booming from the speakers while throwing darts or indulging in your pool table skills, or going out for a lovely dinner with your family or a more intimate meal with a date or the person you love. Although I would say the biggest is merely the freedom just to go outside outside and get a much needed lung-craving breath of fresh air. Many people who have been in lockdown have been unfortunately deprived of this, as many homes that people inhabit do not come with an outside space and the closest many people get aside from going out to the shops or a limited walk in the park, has been a window being pushed ajar. I would say this is a very small price to pay if it means more people on this earth will stay alive, but that doesn't stop the entire world looking forward to the days when we can dive headfirst into social life again. I would compare it to a goose having stepped out of it's habitat for a while for safety reasons, such as a dangerous predator invading their body of water. But once that predator has disappeared, that goose will be longing to return.
By Johnny Hutchinson6 years ago in Humans
