Listen to these songs as you read:
Eagles – Hole In The World
Eagles – Seven Bridges Road
Eagles – Love Will Keep Us Alive
As I sit here listening to these songs, I am reminded of certain events in our recent past. As an American, I am reminded of the events of late 2001, where we lost 2500+ people to an attack on one of the largest cities in the northern hemisphere. Without declaring war publicly, cowards tore at the fabric of the United States with several stolen jets and hundreds of hijacked, terror-encapsulated lives in hand. We were rocked to the core. And still yet, after extremely poor economic conditions have plagued us, and retaliation has reflected the nature of the world in accurate and just repudiation of tyranny, which has pressed us into a mortar of self-distrust; a country erupts. We represent an entire timeline of fire. We find no justice in lies and we bring forth no error in blunt reverences toward heroism. People of the world unite knowing that children exist with parents engulfed in the fiery chasm that is a 500,000 ton burial chamber. We know that these children will learn to love the world despite their horrific circumstance. They will stand tall knowing they can overcome anything.
As a human living on this beautiful planet, I find no fault in the pains we give to the molten rock we inhabit. The ones we exalt as leaders in preservation, the ones we lift as heroes onto the shoulders of humanity for recycling and re-habilitating this lively place; should be praised with an energy rivaling the stars’ combined force of expulsion. We need not speakers of the faith. We need not wraiths of religion or politics. I can tell you, my fellow man, that we need the power within. It resides in you. It beckons not only your action, but your electric presence. The sheer significance of your wit will trump the dismal flight of the ignorant. Your concise rank and file dedication to our progress will preside over the thoughtless abandon that exists within the apathetic.
As a friend, I see a comrade. I see a soldier who fights for the charismatic purpose onto which bloody papers I have cosigned. Ages have passed since our insurrection, but seconds have passed since our salvation. When I look up, into the dark blue, I do see the light. There is shadow all the same, but there is warmth as unexpected as the colonial union. What are we if not together in this place? Our battles reside in a moment, but the explosion lasts an eternity. Life does not exist without strife. We gather not smiles without pain. When on the plain, do you not see rays of hopeful light under ash-laden cloud? This world encapsulates the undeserving inhabitants. We must be appreciative.
As a father, I see the flicker of life in her eye. I see the moment we become one. There he is now, the model of our person, sent to survive in a world we have created. Fathers drove the stake, we wrapped the cloth, and sons must finalize the shelter for this stormy sentience. Again, a pleasure cruise exists only in dream; a peaceful golden field blends with reverie for the hopeful; and we finally see that all seas of green endure timeless embers. Life, in its entirety, is beautiful beyond artist’s words.