Empathy is crucial. For you, for me, and for humanity. Now I know I tend to start every piece I write with, 'HUMAN NATURE,' but that's what all writing is. What  effect                                has on human nature. So there's no need to hide it behind some impression of assuming it's some fantastically inventive concept. It is simply in our interests to explore it. 

 

The ability and privilege to make others feel accepted, wanted and appreciated is one I hope to never take for granted. Everyday, I witness the brilliance and intelligence of the amazing people around me, and so often societal pressures leave them in crippling states of insecurity, self-doubt, and with awful self-esteem. That is why I find it so crucial to show the people around me how much they matter and how invaluable they are. Regardless of how lousy a day I’ve had, I make it my goal to smile at everyone I pass or ask them how they are doing because I can’t really know how much someone needs that insignificant portrayal of support or encouragement. I rely really heavily on completing little tasks for others like opening the door for everyone I pass or offer someone a compliment when I know they need it, because I know how much I appreciate it when someone does the same for me.

 

I’m not claiming to be self-less or a saint, but I rather feel it my duty to undertake small kindnesses because I could never forgive myself knowing I had the ability to make someone’s day better, and had selfishly not taken the chance because of a reluctance to apply effort.  

 

No one should ever take such a privilege privilege for granted. So go out into the world. Pay a smile or two. Shine a compliment on the next passer-by. Don't live in a world where you don't give a little and expect some back. 

Hypochondriacs have this peculiarity where they think they’ve contracted a disease at first mention of its description, as if the mere utter of its portrayal is enough to be a contagion. I have that mindset, except what I contract is aesthetics.  Ambiances and their accompanying entourage of enticing characters and contexts are the driving forces of my creativity. Depending on the mood/genre of what I’m reading or watching, one day I might sulk like a teenage, criminal mastermind - aimless in seeking my next objective, sketch fantastic beasts and where to find them to furnish my journals, or employ reckless inclinations at whim as some feckless daredevil.

 

I am, what you could call, an intellectual parasite. Being intrigued by such an expanse, I leech off inspiration for my sketches and writing from whatever fiction or aesthetic I can contact- because that is how I thrive.

 

Writing a script for my literature class the other day - consumed by a wave of the artistry - I realized that I had composed a lengthy paragraph detailing the framework of the backdrop, atmosphere, and stage design that actually exceeded the dialogue itself.  Is it any wonder why I want to be an architect? For me, the abundance of dialogue isn’t as crucial as the tone and destination. So much of life and narrative is birthed out of context and circumstance, with the right scheme and fabric - maybe that perfectly romanticized pause - an overzealous tedium can be molded into an enticing reminiscence.

 

Counterfeit guises and cocky deceptions,

Universal inadequacy and the arrogant assumption of temporary success,

Our pathetic atmosphere filled with all this and more,

Not just those damned carbon footprints, god knows,

It’s the stain of humanity and essentially Earth,

(Ah it’s the hypocrisy that comes with those words being - in our eyes - equivalent, since birth)

 

It’s the existence of said humanity that impairs,

Subtle balances and natural harmonies, all fragile tensions,

Life on Earth is a pitiful existence in all frank nature,

Evolution favored the arrogant, the boastful, the humans mentioned,

It is in the eyes of Locke and Calvin, that nature provided rights,

Homo sapiens justified to the greatest and most impossibly egregious heights,

 

Let me mention that, as one of the most truthful of cases,

It is in our most ignorant of constitutions that builds these benign bases,

Conviction and expectation of the redundant excess,

And the confidence that we are a divinely-formulated species, at our best,

It is upon these principles that we forge such notions,

Having the audacity to think we matter amongst the other, simmering billions,

 

Life as we know it for such mortals as we is comical,

We take and take and build backbones of shimmering gold as if we are some positive influence on the rest of the - contrary to popular belief - very much mortal world,

 

Golding once claimed the inevitability of savage human nature,

Stating that we are inherently at our very cores animalistic creatures,

But what he forgot to mention was that in the pursuit of happiness,

Whether of civil disposition or other wise,

An animal has no shame, no realization, and most importantly: no remorse,

Call it the circle of life, the egotism and hubris of men,

 

But in the end we are all under the same association of sapiens,

Whether we chose to relish in its esteem or not,

We will perpetually live a hierarchical existence in which there will invariably and without a doubt, be the concept and pursuit of more,

But what I would like for you to consider is: would you really critique a fox for eating a lamb, after all is it anything other than, to it, just another everyday chore?

Inherently, maybe it was just evolution or circumstance that made it so -

We are the foxes, and the world and all its enduring survival: our lambs.