I've spent a great portion of the last few weeks following several current events. My goal with my writing is to write songs outside of my own life. I listened to a great folk singer/songwriter on WTMD recently. His writing was incredibly refreshing because it was completely selfless and relateable because it was conveyed in a way that included everyone. There wasn't a trace of self-obsession in it. It spoke to me instead of at me, and I found myself drawn in to every word. His advice on songwriting was to choose an event and write from a point of view other than your own. This leaves incredible room for creativity and perspective. It made me think about songwriting in an entirely new way.

Obviously, given the reality of the world now, and also that I am somewhat of a cynic, there is no shortage of relevant and important topics to communicate. But there are a few that are particularly nagging me. So much so that thoughts of them are intrusive to my everyday routine. Does anyone else ever feel such a powerful NEED to confront these impossibly unavoidable feelings for the sole reason that they ARE UNAVOIDABLE? This in itself radiates through my gut that my feelings are real, and are based in reality.

Not to get all dooms-day-y, but something big (and bad) IS brewing here. "Here" being the world, not just the country. Of course, given my immediate surroundings and limited worldly experiences, my country is my immediate concern. But the importance of its connection to the larger body of the planet is not underestimated.

I am consistently amazed at the denial that human beings can adopt in the face of unpleasant news or unthinkable circumstances. I am certainly no exception to this very human instinct. It is, very literally, a form of self-preservation. Only in the case of The People of The United States vs. The Irresponsible Government of The United States, it isn't self-preservation at all. It's just the opposite.

Every day I, and I'm sure most other people who have acknowledged the very real potential fate of our future as individuals and as a nation, bear witness to people outright deny the reality in which we are living. They carry on with their often routine shopping habits, their luxurious dining experiences, they plan their investments for their new house, they fork over the plastic with the hope and confidence that the money behind it is still safe, attached to their name, and worth every bit as much as it was when it was earned. Good people, even intelligent people, carry on planning the future they had always dreamed they would have, ignoring the OBVIOUS SIGNS that the capacity for that dream is well on its way to dying. That its happening before their senses, and for whatever reason, they choose to dismiss these signs. At a certain point, it becomes difficult to distinguish the reasoning behind such denial. Some people are simply misguided or unaware, and there is a certain amount of personal responsibility in that. Some people are simply too proud. And some people maybe even simply do not care to be aware. That is tragic and foolish, but also a product of the society we live in, and helped to create.

I believe everyone in this country serves a purpose. We may be the victims in some situations, but we also have accepted and entrusted our wellbeing to the perpetrators time after time. Now, its too late to save. There was a time when "we" could have sucked the poison out and set ourselves onto a prosperous, healthy track. I think that time has passed. Now its a matter of survival rather than prosperity.

Historically, those who choose to live in denial, often don't come out of it until it is too late.