The Building is Burning. Quick! Someone Grab the Tri-Tip!*

You will never see a book about the reality of hellfire on the bestseller list.
What we desire and what we require are usually in opposition.
Truth and mass appeal are usually a contradiction.

You see this everywhere.
The lethargy of popularity.

Talk about nine steps to feeling better about yourself and you will find yourself on Ellen.**
It doesn’t matter if your words lack inspiration.
That you are a creative dunce.
Or if you can’t spell the word “lemon.”

What we want to hear is how to feel better about living.
Because we are frightened by dying.

What we really want is the perfect distraction.
Narcotics, hallucinogens and self-help books are cousins.
Sporting events and pornography are identical obsessions
When used for the same objective.

I contemplated writing an entire volume
With my personal recipe for self-actualization.
I was going to title it “How to become a happy human.”
I think it would have sold like twelve million.

The only problem is this: happiness is an apparition
That is chased by victims of a fatal condition.
And the sadness that we feel deep inside
Can never be relieved just by looking the other direction.

The bad news is the good news
Is the elephant in the room.
We are all avoiding the thing we know deep in our hearts to be true.
And there is not one single exception to this golden rule.

You and I will one day face a maker
And have to account for what we do.
And that day is coming soon.

I want to spend my days confronting the things that will prevent in me
The hope of standing confidently on that day,
Rather than doing my best impersonation
Of Guy Smiley.

While feeling better is a marketing team’s dream,
No one is buying memoirs on avoiding the eternal blaze.

Though you can smell the walls igniting, and the room is a smoky haze...
We’d rather roast some marshmallows

Than escape the deadly flames.

* "Tri-tip" is a kind of steak you make on the grill.
** Ellen is one of the most popular talk shows in the U.S.