Half Fast Living @gaillardiapress.com

I’m on the right track about the secret of living in this material world. As an individual, I am weak. But as a community, we are strong, our sum being greater than its parts.

Alone or not, people who follow other paths are disappointed in the long run, especially those who seek power and resort to violence to make names for themselves.

All I want out of life is the satisfaction of being part of a community that strives to make this world a peaceful place in which to live. That’s the best life anyone can hope for.

Still, I’m surprised when I realize I’m “enjoying the passage of time,” as an old song goes. I often hear that sweet singer as I lie awake at night and think of the good ol’ days.

I’m sure that if I can look at this ever-changing world in a positive light, then I can stay happy, hopeful about my place in it, and satisfied that I won’t lie there in the dark forever.

A good person walks the walk by always doing the right thing and telling the truth.

A good person says nothing mean, does nothing wrong, and doesn’t fuss at friends.

A good person doesn’t support bad people and always stands up for other good folks.

A good person is honest enough to admit having been hurt, but doesn’t seek revenge.

A good person neither bilks anyone out of money nor accepts money to hurt people.

Anyone who does the opposite of all these things deserves neither respect nor support.

Only fools believe in nothing. They’re messed up. They do bad things, never anything good.

All that matters is seeking the truth about oneself, about one’s world, and about one’s place in it; and trying to do good. But bad people don’t care about anything like that.

These trolls eat good people for lunch when they want to. They don’t know, though, that “the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice,” as one wise King has said.

Fools should be afraid because the iSoul does favor what’s good and true, even if it doesn’t lead to wealth and fame. Maybe it takes hard times for especially bad people to learn that.

How long must I put up with being a nobody who wins nothing?
How long must I keep quiet and watch others win everything?

Is anybody out there listening? I’d like an answer before I die.
I’m tired of getting beaten down and listening to others celebrate.

I’m hanging in there, just hoping that my side eventually wins.
Then I’ll be happy. But until then, I’m thankful for what I have.

Fewer and fewer people stand up for what’s right. They’re the worst phonies. They flatter each other and gossip about everyone else.

These bullshooters are bilious bags of bullshot. They’re big-mouthed bullies who berate others with their bitching and bragging.

We shouldn’t stand for it when they target poor, defenseless folks. We should shut the filthy liars up with the unadulterated truth.

But pusillanimous pricks are everywhere when the public values popularity and power more than peace and unpretentiousness.

I trust in the basic goodness of humanity. I’m not a scared little bird. I don’t fly off and hide when bad people resort to violence in order to cause division, distrust and fear.

Yes, they often seem to get away with their evil doing; and their victims often feel as if the whole world is either looking the other way or keeping its collective eyes shut.

But they who live by violence, do die, maybe not by violence, but with blood on their hands. And the iSoul is all about laws of order, action and reaction, kismet and karma.

Arrogant jerks who trick the poor out of their money should get caught in those same schemes. These greedy devils care only about getting rich and then showing off that wealth. They don’t care about the common good; and they don’t believe in a higher power by any name, no matter what they say.

Prideful people like this certainly don’t care about a concept like the iSoul – a wholly universal spirit – because nothing greater than them exists in their minds. All they value is money. That’s their God. On the surface, they appear successful, and they scoff at anyone who stands up to them.

These bullies don’t consider anyone else’s well-being; and they can’t imagine ever getting what they themselves truly deserve. They curse and lie and say hurtful things to folks who can’t defend themselves. Much of what these shameless rogues say is divisive and obscene on one level or another.

These beasts prey on innocent, helpless people, pouncing on them like actual predators. As so-called “fishers of men,” they reel the poor in like fish caught in a net, then crush them on the boat deck and sweep their broken bodies overboard as waste – hook, line and sinker. Do they get away with it?

I hope that all good people rise up as one someday and make the oppressors of the world pay for the bad things they do. Truth and goodness should always win out over lies and evil. The poor and the helpless should know the comfort of justice served, not the terror of continued victimization.

This world consists of three kinds of people: the good, the bad, and the uncaring, who lie between the other two.

Here’s how things should work: The good should succeed in life and be remembered because they do what’s right;

In the end, the bad should fail and be forgotten, snagged by their own snares and tripped up by their own traps;

And the uncaring — bless their ambivalent hearts — should relinquish the grace usually reserved for idiots and drunks.

But that isn’t how things actually work. The good must outlast the bad. And the uncaring must wake up and pick a side.

The iSoul is good — and bad — all the time, as we’re all part of this wholly universal spirit.

From birth, we’re taught to fear higher powers and to ask for favor or strength in trying times.

But when I look out into the starry sky, I see us as flecks of dander on the shoulders of the night;

And I wonder how we’ve survived so long on this ball of earth spinning in the darkness and light.

We are the masters of this tiny world and all that’s in it — animal, vegetable, and mineral;

We have the power to nurture or ignore, to plant or eradicate, to build up or tear down.

We take all these choices lightly at the risk of littering up our own little corner of the cosmos.

It often seems as though people are out to get me and that they want to tear me apart.

Now, if I ever hurt an innocent person, I truly should pay the price and take what’s coming.

If folks are mad at me for good reason, I need to be punished and treated like a scoundrel.

I’m honest enough to say I’m not above the law and that I don’t merit special treatment.

That’s the true test of integrity — if a person abides by the same rules as everyone else.

Bad people have many weapons to use in trapping good people — deceit, in particular.

But liars dig their own graves and make those pits deeper and deeper with each lie they tell.

I’m happy when everyone — including me — gets exactly what we deserve on this earth.