The Modern Day Cowboy

Xavier has been working at his hometown fast food restaurant for 10 years. The summer before he graduated from high school he landed the gig to get some extra cash for his senior year of school. The following summer after graduation, he went back to the fast food spot to save some cash for college. Xavier never had a plan or a passion that guided him toward what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He lived each day from scratch without trying to plan to far into the future. When he dropped out of college he decided to travel America. He spent an entire year on the road before returning home, during that time frame he had changed. His Mother noticed he was no longer the same as he was before his travels. She could sense that he had turned into a man. He may have not made it through his freshmen year of college, but his raw authentic experience on the road had provided him with experience of all the different cultures and terrains that this country had to offer. Upon his return, his mother and father asked when he would return to school. His answer shocked them. Xavier explained that he would just keep working at the restaurant and save money to get back out on the road. Confused and worried, his parents supported his decision. Deep down inside, Xavier knew that this was not a phase and he would never return to school again. The thrill of being on the road and being in new places is where he felt alive. He was addicted to the sense of freedom he had while traveling. It didn’t matter what others thought of him or if his parents thought he was a failure because he wasn’t working 70 hour weeks and going into debt to keep up with society. Being able to see the places that are the background pictures on work computers made him more happy than having to see it through a computer screen. In Xavier’s universe, he is living his dream as a modern day cowboy on the road. 

The Broken Mind 

William felt like he never fit into this world like the rest of the people around him. He worried about every little thing and would lose control of his thoughts, that always led to a panic attack in the  bathroom on the floor. He did everything he could to hide. Not being seen was his safe place. He didn’t want the attention or the vibrant social life most sought out for because he knew those things would cause his mind to become a tornado of possibilities and made up scenarios while trying to navigate a social setting. All he ever dreamed of was to be normal. Being able to go to events and converse with the people around him weighed heavily on his mind. Everything he tried never stuck or continued. The coping mechanisms, the therapy and the pills were band aids on a shark bite. His only way forward was to fight. Fight every single day to be present and mindful of his actions and intentions. He had to peel his own layers back to find a path forward rather than seeking help from outside himself.  He finally understood that he could not be “fixed” from external resources but rather needed to confront his difficulties through continuous effort from within. 

I think we’re proud? 

Welcome to the year 2065. Your first question has to be did we cure cancer yet? Let me start by telling you that we have not cured cancer but our cars drive themselves now. Go ahead and look inside, no steering wheel and no pedals. We did figure out the garbage crisis by dumping all of the Earth’s trash into space. The downfall is that the moon is now covered in trash and on a full moon you can see the mountains of garbage protruding from the surface. Nobody attends school physically but rather log onto their virtual reality head set to go to school. The world has never been this smart in human history. Nobody is polluting because life for the most part takes place within the virtual universe. The rich have encapsulated themselves and have machines keeping their human bodies alive but have not left the virtual universe in years. The poor are forced to exit the virtual universe to eat and sleep. It’s truly amazing that we saved the planet by creating a virtual replica of our planet to live on. I hope this information helps you worry less during your time. You can rest easy knowing that the planet came together to save it from destruction. 

The Last Cigarette 

A younger man sat on a bench just outside of his apartment. He took in the night sky that surrounded the world above him. He took one last drag of his cigarette and hoped everything would be okay. The young man thought to himself as he clutched a bottle of pills in his left cargo pocket. His grip tightened around the bottle when he thought of all the days he wished would be nights, where it’s harder to be seen and the world slows down around him. It’s quiet and makes it easier for him to think clearly. He was labeled as weird, quiet, awkward and lazy. When the sun disappeared and the moon took over the night sky is when he came alive. By this point, the top of the pill bottle had exploded from his grip and was now empty. He was exhausted from the act of fitting into the mold of the plan others force upon others. The stars were bright that cold night in June and he lit one last cigarette. He watched the smoke swirl above him after letting it go from his lungs. He thought the sky was beautiful tonight with the glow of a crescent moon surrounded by the stars. Nothing compares to the feeling he gets from the blackness of the night sky with sprinkled stars and moon light. He wished he loved what the day would bring but it brought him nothing but pain. He then realized that if the night brought him his only joy then why not make that his day. His grip around the pill bottle had loosened and he pulled his hand out of his pocket as he made his way back to his apartment. For the rest of his life he spent every free moment he had working on the ability to be himself. He didn’t need to fit into the world because he already fit into his world. 

Life is Life 

Deep within the Amazon Rainforest stood a tree that rose above the stars. The canopy provided a shield from the harsh rain and hot summer days. Many different walks of life depend on this tree for survival and honestly a place to feel safe when the world is raining down upon them. As the area around the tree began to become home to pythons, less and less life was able to return to the trees protection out of fear that the pythons would end their story forever. After a while the pythons were the only life under the tree. The tree started to extend its growth in order to provide protection for its former tenants but the pythons always adapted to the trees growth and expanded with it. One day, the tree gave up and started to shed its leaves and restart. The pythons quickly disappeared within a short while of the tree having no leaves. The tree, who has only one love and that’s to protect others from harms way felt mixed emotions when the pythons left its umbrella of protection. It was happy that they had moved on but then the tree realized that the pythons were now back on their own without it. Now the tree was confused, if I am here to provide for other life, why do I feel good now that the pythons are gone? The tree tried and tried to grow back its leaves in hopes that life underneath would return but the leaves would not return. Just as the tree was about to give up and return to the earth, the pythons came back. The trees leaves grew thick and more stable than ever and once again provided protection for the life beneath its reach. The tree knew now that life is life regardless of what vehicle life chooses to be. 

I’m not crazy, right? 

The trail was blocked by a fallen tree and a pond sized puddle. There was no going forward so I turned the four wheeler around and head back to where I came from. As I approached the trail head I stopped a few fellow explorers to make them aware that the trail was blocked and there was no path forward. They were younger men who thanked me for the news but politely wanted to see for themselves. I got out my sandwich and coke before I started the trek back towards home. After a little while I started to notice that it was taking the young men longer than it took me to reach the obstruction in the trail. I started to pack up my things and put my garbage in my cooler when it dawned on me that the young men must be trying to clear the trail. I decided to take a ride back down the trail to see their progress. When I arrived at the fallen tree there were no souls to be seen. The tree was still lying across the path and there were no signs that they had went around or found another way. My heart started to beat out of my chest in fear that they had went off the side of a pretty steep cliff that ran in conjunction with the trail. I went up and down the trail while looking down the cliff and there were no signs of the men at the bottom. As I sat there with my helmet off, staring at the endless forest, I thought maybe I had imagined the young men and I was losing my mind. I spent hours yelling and walking around the trail that these young men had vanished on. After about two hours, I rode to a spot where I could use my cell phone to call the police. I told the officer the story of the young men and the trail trying to account for every detail. The officer assured me that he was going to reach out to the forest department to get some rangers out to the location. I hung up the phone and sat there for a while contemplating if I should just leave and let the police handle this or should I continue to look and wait for the officers to arrive. I decided to wait and finally an older ranger pulled up with his perfectly groomed mustache and aviator sunglasses. I told him everything I could remember from the brief exchange I had with the men. Afterwards, he told me that a search crew would be there within the hour and I was more than welcome to stay or I could leave since he had my contact information by this point. As I drove away from the trail that day, I felt a pit in my stomach that I could have saved their lives by just insisting that the trail was blocked and it would be a waste of their time to go down there. Maybe it was my fault that they were now missing. The next morning I called the police station for an update and was shocked at what the officer said to me. She told me that the officers could find no evidence that a four wheeler had gone off the cliff or that a four wheeler had gone off the trail to go another way since there were no outlets on this trail. I hung up the phone and sat in my recliner thinking for what felt like hours. Maybe I am crazy and those men did not exist or they had found a way outside of the officers and my knowledge to find another path. It’s been 34 years since that day and there hasn’t been a single moment where I didn’t think about the young men and what happened on that warm July day. Maybe someday I will forget or maybe someday I will accept that they are okay wherever they are at. The less popular solution would be to accept the fact that I didn’t see these men that day and move on with my thoughts for the remainder of my life.