let lemons be angry

When everything loses its charm--all the camera flashes, all the glamour, all the popularity votes and humdrum gossip, all the assignments, all the cloth, all the rock riffs, all the lyrics that meant everything to you, all the jokes, all the shoes, all the expensive lunches, all the car rides, all the magazines, every single thing that made you say that you loved your life-- what do you have left? What are you holding in your hand that you can promise to live for? What would you die for? Because Everything loses its charm. You walk around collecting dreams and toys, and momentarily they cause your heartrate to spike. Peaks and thrills to drive you on. Little jewels you would jump off a cliff for. One beautiful photograph. Last night's funniest memory. Then you hear news that a church service was closed down by the police in a country you have left a piece of yourself in. This is reality, sleepers. The world you know is just an illusion of perfection, when there are actually parallel universes gasping for breath, decaying under the weight of poverty and politics, things you can only pretend to have experienced. Singaporeans, stop complaining about oppression because you have no idea what oppression is. You are growing up in a city that has the luxury to make tourism its main business, whose people start to grumble when air-conditioning fails. You are youths whose main complaint is that you're "trapped" in an educational system that you are forced to climb higher in, while there are people elsewhere starving for the benefits of education. All the things that give you pride--will your pride last? What do you have that cannot rust or decay, which gives you excitement that isn't short-lived? How long can you have secret smiles about fluff?

Well fluff is what keeps me going, most of the time. I just hate to admit it. I hate to admit that i, more often than not, keep my eyes on things of no eternal value. But then something comes along, such as today's news from abroad, that spins everything into perspective. Say a prayer for your enemies tonight.