A ramble to fill the time. Needing reprieve from analytical acrobatics, I seek to twist my mind around self-indulgent thoughts to relieve myself and buy the energy to keep writing. Sitting in a downtown coffee shop, the rumble of traffic melds into the background of various air conditioning systems, coffee machines, and the ever-present, occasionally enjoyable background music. The people that pass the window give me brief representations of their lives, leaving me to make ridiculously broad assumptions in order to hope that I understand the world around me. A nice car, a nice job; a dirty jacket, a painful life; a strong gait, a clear mind. Unrepentant at the inevitable fallacy of many or most, my assumptions continue to draw pictures of that which I pray to understand. To label, to apply preconceived notions on whatever we perceive, we try to make sense so that we might come to conclusions that just might lead to our ability to make decisions. Upon what else might we base life but that which we perceive and that which we believe. A journey guided by the brief intimations of an overwhelming blindness. But what would we need to overcome to escape that darkness? The openness, the vulnerability to fear and the uncertain leaves too many of us cold and frightened. Comforted by thinking we undertand, we are too easily led to believe that life is much simpler than it is. There is a vulnerability in venturing beyond those known assumptions. It leaves us open to fail, to be wrong, to be hurt. And what identity might be found in wrongness? What connection to the world when we prescribe to something beyond the status quo? No. the comfort is found in repetition, in patterns, habits, repetitions that allow us to believe we have taken part in that which has been deemed right by a supposed democratic process of consent. But what if that consent has been not out of conscious evaluative choice, but something that has been born of repetition and oversimplification in order to sell us on an idea that in reality only benefits those who promote it? So to break free from those chains we must start back at zero, accept the darkness, the weakness, the cold uncertainty, seek to see the world for what it is. We must break away from our expectations, from our own influence on our perceptions. This returns us to our desires. We desire identity, love, sustenance, warmth, comfort. We wish to be free from the fear of losing that which we desire. But the only way to be free from fear is to relinquish our desires and preconceived notions of the world. It is only by greed, the filthy antisocial extension of desire that any person has fear. But that greed can only be fed if the people it surrounds allow it to feed. without the consent of the majority no imbalance can exist. But those imbalances do exist because too many people are afraid to take that journey out beyond that which gives them comfort to realize the inherent balance of human relations.