Babylon

Other people have said it better than me. Thought it more clearly, without tangles and knots. They've seen this already before them, and conquered it. Perhaps not victoriously, but sometimes even in defeat. No matter how it's been done, they are finished with it and I imagine that must be quite a relief. To pass through and be able to look back at it, as though it were ant-like people swarming below as you watch from the heights of a great skyscraper. Clarity abounding all around you. Seeing for miles in every direction, and having an absolute view of all that is there and to feel precisely which way the wind blows against your cheek. It's a warm wind indeed, but it has a mighty cold chill to it. A chill that bares its teeth at you...sometimes it even bites a little. But that wind is enough to snap you out of it and remind you that not all is what it appears to be. That skyscraper can become engulfed in the fog and the muck. The waste of all who are careless and self-centered. Who go along their lives emitting their pollution with every step. It spews out of their rears to be sure, but the most poisonous toxins are the ones that seep out of their mouths. It's a lovely day, we all say. Or it's rotten and dark and miserable. It's all we can do to pass the time. Except for those chosen few that have done it already. Those ones that fight through their fears and face the overwhelming mediocrity head-on. Looking all of this ridiculousness dead in its bleary, bloodshot eyes and not being scared or turning away from it. It's all about the attitude, I suppose. Carrying yourself a certain way. Straightening out your posture, and correcting yourself every time you accidentally glance down at your slovenly feet. Your mind rapidly turns to imagining every germ and speck of dust that your soles collect along the way, and it's so easy to become wrapped up in it. To want nothing more than to scrub and scrub and scrub to wash it all off. But one day you come to realize that all the scrubbing in the world won't make those germs and specks of dust go away. Ever. They are a part of you, and they always will be...