Lesson 191 ~I Will Go The Distance~

I wish I could find the starting line once again but shouldn’t I be looking for the finish line, or maybe there is just so much more race to run, don’t know where I’m going, neither do I most days. I Will Go The Distance

Monday, January 8, 2018

Lesson 191 ~I Will Go The Distance~

Fourteenth Rule Madam Justice,
No Fear, I’m on my way, at least that’s what my dream seemed to allude to and yes I do believe in visions which is why I found this one so scary. You know I’m not usually awakened from such a desperate necessity, so when I am, it often means something, though I haven’t been fired from the day job.

Hell, even the general manager told me if I’m not happy I should leave and I nearly broke out with that “I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to g… I got nothin’ else.’ Only I’m no officer, and I’m not a gentleman, not when the right girl… okay, a girl I want comes along. There are days I always feel like I’m running you know and there isn’t some light at the end of the tunnel just a brief respite here and there. I suppose the good news is I’m always moving because if you’re not you’re dead but I’m not getting anywhere; another regret, I should have told Indiana Gone, I didn’t get anywhere today despite what my car says.

Now, of course, the first step is always the hardest but next, even if you can’t see it, you have to know there is something out there and Madam Justice I honestly do. The thing is I’m always resting and if I’m moving, well in my dream I slept the whole way, I lost some key I was given, and then my luggage was lost, so much so I spent time this morning just looking through all my travel bags. Is that what my dream was trying to tell me, that I have to get out and I have always been one of those who would instead leap than just step, and cue the Xbox One Jump ahead commercial right?

Every morning I step, but this place must be like a maze and not trying to get all racial because how much do I know but, the black man must fly to hat the white man can walk to, that’s from Chris Rock. So we see comedy is not my thing from a long time ago but writing, just like any of my stories I find where I want to go. As my mother said I would find my way and as the music swells, may I be as strong as Hercules, may I have that kind of heart and I Will Go The Distance?

“For a true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.” ―Hercules

I Will Have No Fear

Lesson 162 ~Pain Is Tomorrow’s Problem~

Whatever doesn’t kill you is likely to try again, and it will face someone far stronger, smarter, and sinful; today I should be having fun, trying to take over the world, you know whatever comes up. Pain Is Tomorrow’s Problem from now on I hope.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Lesson 162 ~Pain Is Tomorrow’s Problem~

To Will:
No Fear because that is something we are giving to tomorrow, it’s like I was telling our dear Lady Lu, if there is no tomorrow then why not put everything there and enjoy today. Look you’re already up, with book review ready; should have been done yesterday, you see, pain, problems, and the past must find their way to tomorrow and if you see it just keep passing it on, is that healthy?

Well, you have as Rick Grimes put it stuff and things to do, why not make that goal, find what you want to do rather than what you half to do because we know that tomorrow is going to suck. Hell, today might be awful but if we are going back to the five minutes before the world ends scenario why not make it a good five minutes, I know you can go much longer than that my friend. It’s now about three weeks and other than the pain yesterday that had you laid up, you’re not doing that again because that’s tomorrow’s mistake waiting.

From now instead of running from yesterday and even today, let everything that scares you, hurts you, tries to kill you be waiting and today you just have to get stronger, be better prepared, let yourself enjoy. I know despite all that you’re worried about The Walking Dead, but that should be the worst of it because tomorrow is coming regardless and it will still be ahead of you, fear should be running. For now, you’re not in any real pain, you’re getting shit done, you’re learning, and while terror perhaps will always be your greatest enemy the fact that you’re up and about healthy is a reason to be grateful remember that, being thankful.

I don’t mean to get religious on you or anything but remember how you felt last night, how old you are how much time you’ve wasted, hell did you have a bit of backbone with the manager. If you’re standing, if you’re breathing, fight, and let the pain and blood be there tomorrow as a testament to that, I can’t seem to stress that enough.

Today you write, work on a character, get those reviews up, take a shower, you know you need it and let the pain go, let it run smackdab into tomorrow because Pain Is Tomorrow’s Problem.

I Will Have No Fear

Lesson 076 ~How Are You Lost~

I wonder which is bigger, the world or my own head, if anything at least the world comes with maps and there are plenty of places to run but why the hell am I running anyway. How Are You Lost, the heart knows its direction, breath too, and Will?

Friday, September 15, 2017

Lesson 076 ~How Are You Lost~

Hey Lady Lu,
No Fear, and no sense of direction though everything else knows exactly the way to go, perhaps I should rethink this whole no fear scenario if anything it’s good exercise. You know that when I was back in school, I liked to run, learned to run actually but there was a freedom in it, and somewhere along the way I discovered a fine line between running to something and running away from something and I crossed it.

“We’re not built to kill. We don’t have claws fangs or armor. Vets, they came back with PTSD, that didn’t happen because we’re comfortable with killing. We’re not. We can’t be. We feel. We’re connected. You know, I’ve interviewed over 825 people who’ve done terrible things. I’ve only met one evil person. Some of them were born with bad brains. Some of them got sick along the way. The rest were just damaged people. Traumatized themselves like you, but they could heal. Some more, some less, but they can. We all can. I know it. It’s all a circle and everything gets a return.” Eastman – Here’s Not Here, TWD

To think fifteen days ago I figured I knew exactly where I was going and now well… I’m slogging through, I honestly should be doing better than this but at least I’m moving forward and what else is a guy should be doing? At work today I felt that old fear creep up inside of me, you know the one I’ve been running from, some things you just can’t outrun, you just have to take it step by step. On the other hand, I talk about being dominant and a dominant doesn’t move for anybody, no he stands, a submissive must move according to his will and that is power.

“Compromise where you can. Where you can’t, don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, ‘No, *you* move’.” Sharon, Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Now I don’t fancy myself a philosopher Lady Lu but there I was just standing there at work and you know what I realized, the heart moves forward, you breathe in but you must breathe out, we are not born with eyes in the backs of our heads, and other parts of the anatomy point the way forward. So today’s lesson, how am I lost, I’m thinking about going one way because it’s faster, another way because I want to face my fears but you know what the correct answer is, I should go wherever I please. It’s okay to be lost but it’s not okay to let fear or some proof of courage direct your feet ever, live brave.

“I don’t think that a person should run unless he’s being chased.

Being chased. I like that.” The Faculty (1998)

Not even a submissive does that, a Sub may fear to disappoint her Dom but she moves because she chooses to of her own accord. Have you noticed that I’m getting braver with these references or maybe it’s because I know that nobody is coming by to check, not yet?
What have I learned today, maybe I’m not so much lost as I am adjusting my path, even if that just means choosing a direction and of course forward is good, How Are You Lost?

“The pessimist looks down and loses his head. The optimist looks up and loses his footing. The realist looks forward and adjusts his path accordingly.” King Ezekiel, The Walking Dead

I Will Have No Fear

Lesson 025 ~So Time Me Up~

How much time do you have, you don’t see it, you see the watch face, you hear it in another person’s voice, you feel it dripping from your brow and you know that it’s always running out. “So Time Me Up”, no wonder we can never let go.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Lesson 025 ~So Time Me Up~

Hey Lady Lu,
I so wanted to name this something different but it’s these times we live in, or how about the fact that no one has any time for the likes of us? However, and I know I often repeat myself, that’s what lessons are for right, anyway I hate being late and today I am running behind schedule.

Now aren’t I always running behind, that’s why I try to be early for everything or is that just my anxiety talking? In most horror movies isn’t the best place to be, somewhere in the middle but speaking of other racially insensitive things we’re not allowed to say anymore… I guess in some messed up thought I am thinking about the future past those traditional five minutes dreaming that the world is going to end and that I feel fine.

I feel fine, isn’t that another coping mechanism, remember the good times because you know the bad times are coming, and even worse times. I’d said something about selective memory but nowadays I just go ahead and imagine the worst case scenario and regardless of the truth I’ll probably see it that way a thousand times even after the fact. Waiting is always the hardest part, isn’t that what they say, except when you’re procrastinating and that’s what today has been all about, being honest.

In this world where so much doesn’t truly exist, the value of money, those in power, “gluten” why do we choose to be slaves to the concept of time. As a black man living in America, I can’t say I have much to waste, not trying to get all political or again being somewhat insensitive.

You can thank “Saints Row 4” but out of any super power we could hope to possess, time travel is not one meant for us, it just never turns out well. Then again if we knew of beasts such as “The Langoliers” it would be a reminder to always look ahead and time travel itself would be a thing of the past, to be sure.

I think of all the things I would like to make right or do differently so of course, the first thing would be where would I stop my corrections? Give America a time machine and you would stop the building of the nation if you truly were on the side of right or at least that’s what I think. Maybe I’m just in a movie mindset because what about “The Butterfly Effect” think how much damage you could do to others and think about what you stand to lose completely.

There’s not such a thing yet but imagine if we found there was nothing to go back to, we’re in a constant race to outrun them, langoliers, that would explain why we’re always told to never look back, why in this life we are constantly on the move. Scary to think I might be as bad as “Craig Toomy” running from his past and knowing what the future held, maybe I should call my anxiety a langolier. Talk about the ultimate restart when the survivors were the first people in a world that were yet to be born, maybe then I wouldn’t feel like I am always so behind everyone.

To be first in some things, the middle in others, and most days I hope the future will be that apocalyptic dystopia I’m always dreaming about as if I were a prophet. No Luna, if I were a prophet then what happened today, wouldn’t have happened, did I mention how late it was getting today?

Aren’t we constantly trying to better ourselves or at least I want to be but what was I today, a monster I thought I was trying to lose? To others, I’m tied to the role that either I portray or that they believe me to be and I don’t see how I will change it.

You know I’ve been dealing with Braxton and the tick and today, he and I both lost our minds, please don’t let me become my father and he was just that scared puppy I use to know. Now he’s locked in his room after I literally tore the bed down getting to him because I was just so angry at him and everything else. Isn’t that one more thing about waiting especially with anger, yet another reason I just keep moving or I try to sleep all the time, not that any of that helped.

It scares me to think of how he looks at me now, will I be stuck in that moment, him barking up a storm in the bath with me yelling no, what about when he saw his safe haven falling apart, under the bed. What about the way the people at work see me, I will always be stuck in such a version of reality no matter what I do, time stands still? How about how “Indiana” sees me, I’ll tell you this, that woman has a strange opinion about me indeed, not that I’m interested in changing it though.

Anyway, Indiana probably is expecting me to take her to the movies tonight and you know how I am with the movies so I better hurry up. I’ll do better next time, a next time, yeah this conversation isn’t over but for now, I’m gone Luna, So Time Me Up.

Lesson 015 ~Hurry Up and Wait~

Because I got things to do, things I don’t want to, things to pass time, things to confess but what am I waiting for huh. Hurry Up and Wait… I might be getting better with these confessions but maybe I should wait before I open my mouth yet again hmm

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Lesson 015 ~Hurry Up and Wait~

Hey Lady Lu,
I’m not a military guy at least not anymore (brief stint in the Navy) or in any other type of aspect, in reality, figured I’d let you know since apparently, this is where this idiom comes from. Yeah I know that was a mouthful, especially today but anyway with today’s lesson hurry up and wait is the story of my life maybe.

I can tell you everything about hurrying, I read something once to the tune of do you ever think your mere existence gets in everyone else’s way? Not going to lie to you Lady Lu, that’s part of the reason I move so fast or I try to, this lady told me about that once at work, that I was constantly zipping around and why is that? Anxiety my old foe but actually it goes further than that, the fact that I shouldn’t even be here anymore, we know why.

I’m so busy trying to learn how to live, how to be an adult, that I’m not actually doing so; I told you I get stuck on occasion, like at work but I can’t even remember the bad memory that held me up. Do you know what that’s like to always be playing catch up and then there are people telling you to keep up, while all the time you have to stay focused on your future? It’s all good practice to outrun the Grim Reaper, the one thing I wish would catch me but I’ve been running my whole life I can’t stop really.

I’m in a hurry to get nowhere, what’s that old song, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”, so is that it Luna, am I lost, and I’m scared of what I will find there, or do I not belong there at all? That was pretty true of the military, I didn’t want to be where I was but what was I thinking about by joining in the first place, if anything getting unstuck.

“That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.” – Wooderson from the movie, Dazed and Confused

Isn’t that just such a man thing to say but isn’t that how boys become men, hell back in high school there was this kid younger than me, we were “friends” any way he knocked some girl up and there’s his life, his manhood. Warning you right now My Lady, I’m going to have to curb “Ned Flanders” for a minute; so when I was still with my parents I thought about hiring an escort.

I wanted to grow up, and how in the hell was I ever going to get a girl normally; to this day can I tell you if sex makes you an adult… well, I’ve done plenty of things for girls I figured I’d be with, bought stuff, cleaned the whole house, presented myself to be a gentleman to an extent but I do the same thing for girls I’m not with as well. So you rush around doing, then when nothing happens, you ask yourself what are you waiting for.

“What are you waiting for?
Love me like you do, la-la-love me like you do (like you do)” Ellie Goulding

My mother would always tell me I would find my way, strangely enough our serious chats were always on the verge of another suicide attempt, this was the second one when I swallowed a damn box of sleeping pills; that was loopy night but yeah I had cheap pills and I survived, talk about being lost and another loss. Was I scared, Luna every time I’ve tried I’ve been scared, painkillers, more sleeping pills, researching ways I could just go to sleep… yeah as far as pain goes I’m a sadist, not a masochist and I don’t like to make a mess. This goes right back into the, I don’t belong here a section to come round; I’m always taking up space and all I can think about is clearing that space for everyone concerned.

“I guess it comes down a simple choice: Get busy living, or get busy dying.” – The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This is me at work, I’m not there to make friends, I’m not there because I like it, I have a place and a purpose, sad as it is and I don’t like making people wait so I hurry up, I come back to the house because Braxton is waiting so I hurry up, and then I wait for something to happen. Isn’t that what we are Luna, all my writing and waiting for nothing at all but I just hate being late if anything.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

When it comes to even the pleasures of life… “HORMEL TACO MEATS Beef Crumbles”, the original “Saints Row”, a pretty girl here or there, I’m either hurrying and screwing everything up or I’m waiting and missing things. So is that the answer Luna, to just slow down and enjoy things as they come, try to make good memories and such.

Not with anxiety, a friend of mine asked about my “Blackjack Scale” but I present another theory, “The Five Minute Rule”, in my life I boil everything down to five minutes, survive those five minutes and the next, or in five minutes the world will end and you don’t have to worry anymore. One of the reasons I’m at work I set my stopwatch, I can’t bear to look at the time, but survive five minutes, then wouldn’t you know it I survived an hour and so on. The last place you ever want to slow down is Hell because for some inane reason I think things will get easier?

“then basically I’m just gonna walk the earth.

What do you mean, walk the earth”?

You know like Cain in ‘Kung Fu’, walking place to place, meet people and get in adventures.

And how long do you intend to walk the earth?

Until God puts me where he wants me to be.

And what if he don’t do that?

If it takes forever, then I’ll walk forever.” Pulp Fiction (1994)

You know how I feel religious wise but yeah I do think there is something, no man escapes death so many times without having some sort of purpose you know what I mean. Maybe I’m out running that too or maybe I passed it, doesn’t it suck that you can spend your life focused on five minutes, an hour, a day, yes still thinking about “the incident” but anyway you stay on that and you’re just waiting to forget. The curse strikes again because I can’t forget, this is lesson 015 but we know I have hundreds of more skeevy lessons I could still share.

For now, though I’m in a hurry to finish this, in five minutes I’ll be done, another five I’ll be looking at poetry, and another, setting up to post etc. Chances are good Luna, me and someone may have either passed each other by now or we’re waiting for the other to you know what right Hurry Up and Wait”

A Breathless Guest

She leaves me breathless, not with kisses or in the plethora of ways I imagine but with my own fear of wanting her and knowing in the end… A Breathless Guest, someday on my lips, in my life, in my bed but she really won’t be a guest; catch my breath.

See Me Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kwy8BQnwc

And was I too busy running
Are Cupid’s arrows… endless?
Did you FINALLY say something?
It’s not like I would, I guess
You can tell everybody and it’s a little bit funny
That this year’s love is madness
“Love me like you do”, “love me, love me” I say nothing
Left breathless
Scared because I know what’s coming
What… you said yes?

Copyright © 2015 Second Circle Creations, Will A. Bradford Jr. All rights reserved.

Inspired By: Yuffie Kisaragi … Final Fantasy VII, A Great Big World Ft Christina Aguilera “Say Something”, P.M. Dawn “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss”, Aloe Blacc “The Man”, Glee Cast “Your Song (Glee Cast Version)” (Elton John), David Gray “This Year’s Love”, Ellie Goulding “Love Me Like You Do” Fifty Shades of Grey Soundtrack, and The Cardigans “Lovefool”