Mass Identical eJourneys Of Self-Discovery

    I felt knowledge and the unity of the world circulate in me like my own blood.” ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Yes I’ll be making a deeply spiritual journey but I havent crowdsourced which road to travel this year

I must seek my true self somewhere far from the well-worn maze pathway I trace in the daily ratrace

I’ll lose my mind and discover myself- according to stuff I’ve been tweeted from certain bestsellers

And it won’t be long before I leave, no way! I just have a few more loose digital ends to tidy up

Wont need much besides my iPad - just my credit card and the overpriced travel clothes in my pack

Gonna head out to see the suffering that rules the world sos to reach a higher plane of consciousness

I’ll be getting twisted up in trendy yoga poses while I ponder the complexities of climate change

Broadening my horizons by holding my nose and tiptoeing thru their inescapably-crowded streets

I’m going off on a pilgrimage during which my normal life and busy thoughts will flake uselessly away

I’ll gaze upon the menial jobs of the filthy working poor to grasp the dignity of their grinding poverty

I’ll make a voyage of self-discovery and then step back in my cube with but a little cattle prodding

I’ll tour their swarming, filthy hives but spend almost all my time with other tourists, just like me

Gonna take back some life lessons learned photographing others from safely behind closed windows

Why, I’ll be gone close to 3 whole weeks, worrying every minute that I’ll be robbed, shot or infected

However, all the time I will hold tightly to the knowledge that I’ll be back home before I know it

Then I’ll integrate their gritty lessons into my ass-kissing and back-biting shoulder-climb to the top

Look for my pithy posts from identical dirty hostels run by world-weary, expatriate entrepreneurs

I’ll upload the photographic proof of my emerging spirituality on social media in near-realtime

See, I’m going off looking to raise my cosmic awareness and it’s not simply because I cant find a job

And I got bookmarks on all the highlights that I simply gotta see to nurture my eternal soul

I’ll be taking lots of pictures of stuff that I won’t ever even actually look at with my naked eyes

Yup, I’ll sneak soul-stealing snapshots of real people from our bus to hang in my cubicle, back home

Daringly, I might even brush my teeth in the tap water and possibly even try some local food

But mostly I’ll have beers with my new tourist friends in places where the natives can only work

I can spice my twitter feed with the nuggets of worldly wisdom that I am trying to digest here

Wearing dirty clothes and hardly ever getting a really decent shower, so does my understanding grow

Just watching out for my wallet and holding on to my passport requires a lot of my attention

Observing all the litter and their infinite dirty faces will surely raise my own level of enlightenment

I will adjust to their pace of living and kick back, yet diligently keep to my hard and fast schedule

My fellow travelers and I will share tips on hostels, tours, food and bars – all created just for us

Finding and successfully using an ATM will become an exotic adventure that I will always remember

And I will experience their culture just like I do their food – only in places made safe for such as us

I will learn to ignore the endless stream of trinket sellers and beggars with a soulful equanimity

I’ll be wearing local bracelets, tying my hair back in skinny dreds and not shaving, most of the time

I will try to keep repeating Om Mani Padme Hum as I squat forlorn and sick over a squalid asian toilet

I will learn patience waiting for the moment when none of the 1000 other tourists are in my picture

We're Just Cosmic Background Noise

But we act like our bullshit-filled lives have meaning in the universe...

You’ve briefly attained a venal self-awareness for reasons that, as far as you know are simply random

Arose from somewhere out the cosmic background from which emits the hum of the universal mantra

Your confused memories only go back so far - and they wont extend out for very much longer - either

Yes, the infinite buzz will re-envelop you despite your pathetic, childish notions of a biblical paradise

In the meantime just let yourself be filled by ads and stress out over multitasked inconsequentialities

For all your thoughts emerge as tiny, fractal bubbles which quickly disappear in the surrounding void

You briefly pass a window in an endless dark tunnel and are filled with a flash of astonishing light

Not to worry though, all this foolish nonsense will not outlast your eternal, yet totally fictional, soul

Do not fear their quaint notion of a divine post-mortem accountability - It’s only used to control you

Because you will remember nothing even if your grasping and foolish self somehow is reincarnated

So, don’t count on carrying forward any wisdom, thoughts or remembrances even should it happen

Rather, believe whatever you wish about your future, for disappointment does not exist in the void

Use up your time on petty jealousy, foolish hatred and pathetic hobbies - Cuz it just dont matter!

Dump all the litter you want for it will be incinerated during earth’s demise with the end of our sun

Make all the mindless noise you wish for it can never leave the thin atmosphere we have so polluted

Dont bother saving for your future since even the rich and famous share the identical, empty fate

Though you’ve watched many insects die quickly for nothing you always knew your life meant more

Caught frightening glimpses of a vast emptiness when you were not looking… and quickly turned away

So just keep focus on all those costly but meaningless activities that make your children your friends

Your empty consumerism wont have any consequences so go eat, drink and live merrily – all on credit

Always tried hard to act like you were quite sure there’s more to life than the unending, empty grind

You’ve forever left really important stuff for later cause you’re so damn busy and you still have time

But you’ll be so worn out, drugged up and in so much pain you wont even remember any such things

And not to worry: They will be able to get on with their lives after seeing you off, alone- to wherever

Don’t waste time on such as recycling: For the end of our solar system will totally clean things up

Stop and smell the roses, go for the gusto and live for today cause soon you’ll know nothing: Forever!

Sadly, you’ll miss all the rest of those big games, holidays and special sales, all throughout eternity

But don’t you worry, for you will not feel alone, because there is no loneliness in nothing

You look for meaning only because our brains tell us that things simply should make some sense

And passing briefly through this life and simply disappearing with nothing in sight just cannot be right

Yes, though it’s impossible for your to accept a fate of background inconsequentiality, nonetheless...

Your chirping will die out like the crickets in the fall, with only a bit part played…And that will be all

After Work...Our Real Lives

After work, boys, that’s the time… Those few hours for our lives to really shine

After work and before the homelife responsibilities and our entertainment downtime

After work we’ll push it hard for a moment, cause we’re finally doing stuff we think really matters

After work, for a couple hours, I can practice being semi-pro at something that I actually enjoy

After work is maybe just the Happy Hour where I purge myself by poison, of their grasping insecurity

After work one of these days let’s get together and do a barbecue or something

After work I’m gonna try and reach the real trajectory of a life I still feel like I might lead one day

After work there’s always more work to do but I might squeeze in an hour or so

After work we’ll get our lives together, doing what we know is truly important, for a little while

After work they wont be micromanaging us with that ever-present threat of sudden unemployment

After work we can at least try to act like the men we always thought we would one day become

After work we’ll pay some real attention and give it all we’ve got

After work I might even undertake like maybe a short search for meaning…or something

After work I’ll spend some real quality time with my treasured family

After work and before it gets dark again we’ll take our places in the sun

After work I’ll drive around like a rich man with the tinted windows up and my dark glasses on

After work I’ll seek an antidote for all the force-fed BS I’ve learned that I must swallow with a smile

After work we wont be at all like politically correct if we want to laugh out loudly, together

After work that self-serving bitch wont be looking over my shoulder every couple of minutes

After work we’ll take some ammo and a sixpack out to the dump and just relax for a while

After work I might study stuff that could help get me another job after the next round of big layoffs

After work my possibilities emerge briefly like a short sunset under low clouds on a dark winter day

After work I bet we’ll be able to see that there could be more to life than their venal strategic vision

After work I’ll be laughing cause it helps me to get my head back on straight, if just for a little while

After work we’ll have to move it, if we really want to get some recreation, what with all the crowds

After work I’ll prove that I’m more than an interchangeable, disposable and, actually, unwanted part

After work we’ll get out the bigboy toys that can still make it all seem somehow worthwhile

After work I’ll pick up the kids and we’ll roll out together in that big blue SUV for their favorite eats

After work I can expand again, outside the muted, cubicle flunkie mold they’ve got me pressed into

After work, whaddya know, I’ll be doing stuff that actually interests me, if only for a short while

After work we’ll be more than too-slowly moving little dots on some suckup’s failing project schedule

After work we’ll climb right outside their box, stand up on our hind legs and really think for ourselves

After work I’m gonna try and figure out what it is I actually want to be when I finally do grow up

After work we’ll enjoy the feelings of self-worth our trivial daily grind so efficiently abrades

After work, just you watch and see, their bullshit will, for a moment, not put the fear of god in me

After work – Yet, we all know we’re just lucky we still got our jobs to go to again, tomorrow morning