Perspective is a funny thing. It can change from day to day, hour to hour or minute to minute. It's not the same for any two people, and it can be influenced by so many outside, and inside sources. It can cause raucous arguments, or bring two people closer together. It'll build you up and knock your ass right back down. Sometimes you may feel like you've got the whole perspective thing dialed in and then suddenly it hits you. Your totally oblivious to what is really going on around you. And more importantly, you're blind to the cause and effect of it all. Perspective is a funny and sometimes devastating thing.

We live in a society where it is almost encouraged to turn a blind eye to what is going on around you. We're taught in school to work hard, study hard, and become an active part of society. And within that curriculum we're taught to not sweat the small stuff. Only the definition of small stuff in our society is not a true definition of the words. At least in my opinion. My interpretation of that oh so famous saying is this: The small stuff in life is money, property, hierarchy, job security, bling, clothes, cars, etc. I think you get the point. And I think that "Society", at least ours (ours being the US of A) would completely disagree with me. I'm pretty sure that we were taught in school the exact opposite. That what we need to do to be an active member of society is to grow up and get a good job, buy a nice house, start a family, provide our families with all the "necessities" needed to be comfortable as we wander the wrinkles of our brains trying to figure out what it is we really want out of life. As society holds its breath hoping we give up and fall into line. The education system (which is designed by the people with most who don't give a fuck about real people) created this system knowing full well that most of us will just succumb to the pain that is real life and join the society they have spent almost three hundred years building for us. And we are, and have been their ginny pigs for their little lab tests. (And one other note on education systems. It blows real freakin hard that there are damn good people out there, trying to provide our children with the skills necessary to navigate the maze of life and come out with a true or at least truer take on the world, but they too are being suppressed by the system.) Welcome to the machine!

I was lucky enough to learn early on (early on being high school) that I didn't want to be a part of normal society. At least I think it was luck (it may have been aided by substance). It was somewhere in my sophomore year of H.S. that I started to just sit back and observe. And I was honestly disgusted by most of what I saw. Friends begging their parents for their first car, or for that sick pair of kicks, or an SNES, or.....well I could go on an on with the list of material goods, but I won't. And I'm not saying I didn't still have these very same desires. I certainly didn't get a grip on my perspective right away. It was just the start of my tunnel vision clearing up. And it still hits me from time to time, I mean it's easy to get sucked into it all and lose sight of what's really important. And sometimes it takes a shitty situation to put it all back into place, or sometimes you are lucky enough to move the clouds around with no help at all. But the important thing, at least for me, is that the pieces do fall back where they belong.

When I was still in high school I was unfortunately a little clouded over though, and thought I had figured it all out. That's part of the reason I stopped going to high school and ultimately dropped out. I thought the system was going to brainwash me if I stayed in school and so I did the only thing I could do. Stopped going. There are times when I think back and part of me wishes I would have finished out my sentence, but most of the time I stand behind my decision. I may not have had the proper outlook just yet, but my dropping out helped me achieve it. Plus without that move I would not have met the love of my life, marry her and have a really kick ass kid with her. Not to mention some of the most outrageous adventures of my life, but that's a story for another post.

I don't know what it is about the holidays that get me thinking about this so much. Maybe it's the impending spree of shopping that is associated with the month of December (no matter which religion all the big days are in December, how'd that happen?) (well OK, not ALL religions/ethnicities, but a lot of them are). Maybe it's that I have just hit my breaking point with it all over the course of the last eleven months and my psyche knows that these last 45 days of the year include a hell of a lot of get it all out of your system partying. I don't know, but every year around this time it all hits me. The "what the fuck have you been doing for the last few months" thoughts. Like I said, Society is an easy thing to get caught up in. And I fall into that trap as easy as the next guy or gal. I have the moments of "oh fuck I need that stupid damn thing so freaking bad" and the "I am going to work so hard, so that one day I can run this damn company". When really what matters to me are the simple things. My family (furry and human alike), my friends, the fact that I am breathing and healthy. Simplicity is waaaaay to underrated in our society and I think we could all benefit from taking a step back and simplifying the fractions that make up our lives. Because sweating the small stuff is a waste of fucking time. Don't sweat over it, just drop it and move on. Enjoy life. Tear down the walls (I know, I used two lines/titles from Floyd songs. So kill me) that are obstructing your view.

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