Everything is horrible!
We live in the worst of times!
War and poverty everywhere!
The rich oppress the poor and big money controls everything!
Racism, sexism, and other horrible -isms are integrated into the system and we can’t get them out!
You get an education that only leaves you bills, work all your life like a drone in the capitalist system for next to nothing, then you die,
Woe is me!
That’s the exciting, apocalyptic message we hear every day, until we all feel like life is pointless or, alternatively, we dedicate our spare time to complaining about it online and imagine that we are the last of the true last freedom fighters in a sci-fi dystopian teen Netflix series.
It’s a great fantasy, but alas, it’s not reality.
In fact, the world has never been better.
Whether we are black or white, male or female, never in history have any of us enjoyed more rights, privileges, opportunities and prosperity than today.
Never before has it been so easy to find support for any challenge we face or knowledge and allies to realize any plan we might imagine.
There has never been a better world than this.
It’s just not cool to say so.
Fortunately, I’m not cool.
Odes to Life is a series of 1-minute rants on video (more rant than poetry), whose only purpose is to encourage you to live.
if you want to hear what I have to say on the subject every week or so, subscribe to Poetry & Purpose on YouTube.
The Videos
Ode to Give Up and Stop Trying
Ode to the World is a Mess
Ode to Humanity is Crap
Ode to I’m so Old and Tired
Ode to Everyone is Better Then Me
Ode to I’m Disappearing
Ode to the System is Broken
Ode to I Want More
Ode to No One Appreciates Me
Ode to Toxic Masculinity
Ode to I Shoulda Never Got Married
Ode to Why is Everyone Happier than Me?
My Prayer for 2023
Ode to all the Goddam Little Annoyances in Life
Ode to Everything is Horrible
Ode to My Children Won’t Speak to Me
Ode to Activism
Ode to I’m a Drone!
More coming soon
More coming soon
What you will get from Substack or Patreon
You will find our Substack newsletter valuable if you are:
– searching for purpose and meaning, or want to become a person capable of achieving something in life; or
– if you write or want to enhance your creativity and understanding of life through writing.
In our free section,
you will find the lessons and insights I have learned in my life and am still learning today:
– from 60 years of life as an outsider in two cultures and on two continents – as a haole in Hawaii and an Ami in Germany;
– from my quest to find purpose, meaning as spirituality, and the truth about the confused world we live in;
– from my fight with depression and life with ADHD;
– from my study of the great books and poetry of the great thinkers in history.
Our exclusive section
is for writers and those learning to write – in it, you will find:
– practical lessons on the craft of storytelling;
– tips on how to enhance your creativity and find meaning and purpose in life through writing;
– my experiences in the world of professional writing, but also as one who explores life through writing.
This exclusive content, "Writing is a Sacred Act," is available to both my Substack subscribers and my supporters on Patreon.
If you are someone who consciously thinks about their lives and the world they live in;
if you are driven by a desire to create or achieve;
if you write or are learning to write,
you will love this newsletter.
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