The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

While, I, myself, don't really hold a strong opinion on my physical appearance one way or another, I'm comfortable with myself and do regularly get complimented on it. Segueing from that, while I hold no jealousy for the guy from a commercial I'm about to mention, what this commercials insinuates kind of bugs me. In a new Toyota Camry commercial, a lady compares her deal on a Camry to the guy she's dating or married to, and says, "Looks like I hit the jackpot again." The lady at the front desk then asks, "Again?" At this point, what appears to be a bodybuilder comes forward, and tells the woman that he got her a Cappuccino or something of the sort, before saying, "...and I rescued this puppy I found on the street." The lady at the front desk then gives this look, which clearly says, "I want him to penetrate me right now. I'll be taking a break in 15 minutes. Can you wait that long? Please? Rescue me from this boredom with y...

Here's a poem I wrote, entitled "Shallow," which can be found on pages 34-35 of my book, "Seasons Come, People Grow: A Poetic Journey" (2006). Everything's very surface, Very easy from here, I can stand and not worry, Not have to think or fear, I can look and see everything, Not have to move a muscle, If I go out any further, That could mean a world of trouble, I slowly walk out, More difficult with each step I take, I'm now in over my head, Did I make a critical mistake? This is too deep for me, What was I even thinking? I can no longer see, The sharks could be after me, It's hurting my eyes when I open them, Why does it have to sting? I hate having to close my eyes, Everything is fake and imaginary, I need to walk back to the shallow end, This is just too much for me, Life is easier this way, When you're not having to think.

I realize we're all hypocrites to a certain degree. We've all, at least once in our lives, said something or claimed to believe something and went against those words or morals. Some do this at a greater frequency than others, there's no question, but we've all done this at least once. So, I'm not here to lay claim that I've never been hypocritical. I have. I don't believe I've done it very much, but I have been guilty of it before. If there's one type of hypocrisy that drives me crazier than any other, it's when the holier-than-thou folks lecture, preach and shove their beliefs down others' throats, making themselves seem above it all and they then prove they're no better than any of us. I was witness to this again the other day. First, let it be known that I am in no way religious. I could care less what a person believes, so long as they don't harm themselves or another in the name of their religion. So, with that in mind, here...

Why do I say this? Some people are not very deep thinkers and that's being nice. They're about as deep as a cupcake holder and again, that's being nice. I say this in response to some comments I received regarding a book I wrote. The comments weren't even mean or negative, but they were the kind of comments where I was stunned into silence, with one question lingering in my mind, "What?" I wrote a book of poetry and released that a while back. At the very start of the book, the introduction, I wrote about my inspirations, my influences and my intentions. There were three major intentions with the book: 1) To provoke thought, 2) To open minds and 3) To touch on emotions. I tried to write many of them in a novel format, where there's a main character, thoughts and feelings of that main character are expressed and the message or moral of the story is known by the end. There were other poems where I took on controversial issues, tackled politics, religion an...