Looking for a new addition

No, we don't want a baby, we want a puppy! Jason and I are all settled into Nashville. Our apartment is fabulous. We have it all decorated with all of our new stuff and it already feels like home. I start subbing after an orientation this Monday and Jason is applying and interviewing all over the place. His job of choice at this time is to be a special agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. This is no joke people. He may even have to carry a fire-arm! Crazy. So, now I need a dog to sit at home with me late at night as I worry about my husband who's trying to get some punk to buy drugs from him so he can bust him! It's really not all that serious or worrysome, I just like to dramatize things.

So, I'm done with college, I'm married, we have a nice place to live and comfortable salaries coming our way. You know what has hit me? Jason and I have begun to "realize" the American dream. We have all of these things, we've achieved these "goals" and now here we are. Do I feel more fulfilled than before I'd achieved these things? Nope. I've gotta say, the American Dream has never seemed as empty to me as it does right now. To imagine going on in life from here only to work my 9-5 doing something corporate or boring, even something with social services, and then coming home at night to play with the dog, make some dinner, watch some prime time television. Ah! Life may as well just be over. Now more than ever before I am committed to taking the path less traveled. I'll take the narrow path, the harder path- the path with the greatest reward. I may not become a millionaire in the process. Maybe I'll only be able to scrape by but it's better to be struggling financially while enjoying a life of purpose than to be wallowing in money and emptiness. I just feel like my eyes are opened wider than ever before. I feel like I see something so clearly that most of America has turned its gaze from-the truth.

The American dream is a death trap and currently our society is walking like a herd of cattle straight to the slaughterhouse. It's actually a fair analogy. Cows that are raised for their meat are fed really well. If they think all that really matters in life is getting lots of good grass to eat, than they have a great run before they're killed. But then, it's all for nothing. They don't get anything from eating all of that grass. The farmers are the ones that profit, not the stupid cows. All along they thought they were living the good life, and then just before the stun gun pops them in their head so their throat can be slit it hits them, "I was just a pawn" "it was all a lie. This wasn't really the good life, it was all for another man's profit". If there had been some kind of cow rebellion in which all of the cows rushed one of the fences at one time, they could have easily been free. They wouldn't have had as much grass to eat, and maybe not as comfortable of a place to sleep at night, but they would have been free. The grass would never have tasted so sweet because now they were eating it by choice. Now their life was in their hands again and they were free to roam the plains as it was inteneded, for the rest of their natural days.

Okay, so I'm ranting about cows here, but I'm sure you can make the connection. If not, here's what I'm saying. Americans have been fed lies from as early as they could comprehend a television commercial. "You want this toy, then you'll be the coolest kid in the neighborhood." They begin leading consumer-driven lives by age 8 and many never look back. Many are encouraged by their families that making money and acquiring things for yourself is the main goal in life, so they should get a degree in business, or become a doctor, or whatever will make the most money the fastest. And so many do. They never stop to understand that they're not making choices for themselves. They don't understand that the world of Marketing sees the American public as its ridiculous, gullible little pawns. They don't want people to buy things because it will make their lives better, they want more money for themselves and their own empty lives so they lure in the masses who haven't thought for themselves since age 8. And it doesn't stop with material items for pleasure. That's why affairs happen, that's why murders are committed, that's why drug use is so high. People are trying to find that satisfaction. They're trying to fill the innescapable void that is a life without Christ. But they can't see it. They have no idea what they're missing. Now with moral relativism as our country's accpeted moral stance (it's not okay for me, but if it's okay for you then it's okay...) the absolute truth of Christ and people's need for him has become even more clouded.

Maybe I'll write a book someday, and it will flow much nicer than this previous rant about the cows and their representatin of the majority of our nation. Anyhoo, I guess that just shows what's been on my mind in these weeks that I've been free from school and work. It gives a person time to really think and I like it. And of course I've been thinking about puppies too, cuz I want one. Until next time...