life is like being frozen in cement
  every day you wake up
and get told who to be
  by someone who doesn't exist anymore
until you gradually freeze up
  under the weight of heavier and heavier prophecies
    most of which you first made up
      when you were a kid
    and your dad got sick of paying for you
      and told you to get a job
    so you pulled something out of your ass
      and that's your life.

now,
  think about that.
when it comes right down to it --
  who can you actually be?
almost everyone
  can only be
    what's in a strange little prison
  they built inside their head.

oh men talk about freedom
  they love the theory of choosing their own lives
    but note:
mr. yesterday
  cows tyrants with ease
you think you're free!
  day after day
you have this single fixed belief
  of who you can be,
    and what you can do,
      and maybe you're having second thoughts
  but the choice was made too long ago
    to change,
      because people don't -- change
        that would be, too, well, different.
and what about your single fixed job?
  well you couldn't do anything else;
and of course all of this was chosen
  and get this -- this is the only excuse you'll ever need,
    and you won't even know that you're using it --
by mr. yesterday.

now young people pay attention
  have you thought about your career?
i can tell you, many men do bolts
  and some men do nuts
and it's very important --
  very important!
to choose rightly
  because otherwise
you'll spend your whole life lamenting
  that you're a nut
when you should've done bolts.

now everyone finds themselves
  in a story
    (that's what happens when you breathe and have a brain)
this story is sweeping us all
  to -- whatever you said ten years ago,
to that cerulean endpoint you'd picked out,
  your personal prophecy, that you made a long, long time ago
before you took your mind, and locked
  it, and threw away the key, and
started making nuts in the cellar.

so you see,
  insanity
is the normal life,
  and courage
is escaping the easy, downstream current,
  the one that takes no effort,
    the default life.


  WHO ARE YOU?


  HONESTLY?


  CAN YOU SAY, OR ARE YOU TOO BUSY MAKING NUTS?



    HAVE YOU SEEN SIBERIA?

    HAVE YOU TRAVELLED UP THE NILE?

    BATHED IN THE SACRED GANGES?  WALKED ALONE IN THE OUTBACK?

    WORKED OUTSIDE YOUR CAREER?

    TALKED TO AN AVERAGE APE ON THIS BALL OF ROCK?



  FOR HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AN ECHO?


  and do all your associates also define their identities
    by the number of years they've been making
  nuts in the basement?

  interesting.

  i'm sure who you used to be
    is a kind, loving tyrant
  tell him he's great, an individuated
    individual, he ought to have strong self esteem
  as he drifts over the waterfall
    passed out in his kayak
  on the river of life.

 - "have you seen siberia?", connelly barnes 2008-12-29