It is today again. The elements of a theme for a year of my silly essays have not settled into a recognizable drift or puddle. I wrote this years first essays under a cloud of indecision. The year was ending badly in lumps and clots, trailing stringy stuff, drifting unpleasant and unidentifiable odors. Misshapen things had insinuated themselves into our lives, unnoticed until they slimed across our teeth. "What the fuck is this shit in my beer?"A rare few noticed. Most of have just learned to swallow without objection or complaint. Now, 2010 is puking in our lap. Hardly any of us are aware of or feel any concern for the passing of America.

There are probably hundreds of ways to describe the mess we are in. Maybe a thousand more to describe our inevitable future. It's probably not surprising that as our days brighten and dim like a stop-motion film of some imaginary landscape, each sunrise burns a new pain, each sunset veils a new betrayal.

Tomorrow we will wake again, submerged in the same old, same old of today. (It is always today, so how can we expect tomorrow to be any different than todays today?)

I can see how practitioners of religion, philosophy and sub-quantum theory are forced to create imaginary words and terms. There are no "real" words to describe the circling of humanity around our dead past, present and future.

It has been said in my presence that if you notice a turkey on the ground surrounded by a ten-foot circle of other turkeys looking on with interest, that you have found a rattlesnake. The snake has bitten the turkey at the center of attention and is now hiding under the dead turkey, waiting. The turkeys at twenty turkey-paces are aware and alert, keeping their distance, waiting. The snake is outnumbered and surrounded. The turkeys are getting bored. The snake waits. People today are like this. Something's going to happen. Maybe something exciting. Maybe we will simply wander away, sated and dulled? We are the turkeys and the snake. Waiting.

In the world today, it seems to me, there is grace, beauty, kindness and life Good and Plenty in comfort for all of us. The quality and quantity of any of it is relative to the ambitions and taste of the individuals and their cultures. The supply cannot be emptied. It constantly overflows. Good and Plenty pours down on all of us, high and low, rich and poor, weak and strong, smart and stupid, alike.

What is pleasure to one may not be pleasure to another, but, we all seek and achieve these things. In a world where people are left to ourselves alone to cooperate or go solo as we please, accident, discomfort, disease and death are manageable hazards. In a world where there are people who will not leave other people alone, there is a tendency to exaggerate beyond tolerance the hazards of mortal existence.

We have an overabundance of busybodies whose ambitions are hooks in our flesh. They goad us to their paths. We are pressed to disregard the hooks. They are necessary to our well-being and security is the lie. We obey when we are told that new hooks have been discovered and that we must submit to their piercing and pulling or our well-being will suffer. Our blood and pain are the harvest we offer to those who hold the strings and tug at our hooks. We do not complain much. "May I have some more, please?"

The truth is, we like to be bullied and pushed around. When our officials and public servants leave us alone, we complain that they are not worth the money we surrender for their services. Then when they push us around, take our most cherished property, hurt, maim and kill us, we submit with mild admonishment, but we submit in any event to our diminishment, disparagement and destruction.

Who are we, really? Who are you, who accept being only part man, part woman, part slave to any nameless human who is willing to strike you or take your things or your time? Who are you who will surrender your body, even your children to the naked demands of strangers? I do not understand your willingness nor your reluctance to simply say "No!" and to then defy offenses upon our existence.

I think it is time for the wheel to turn away from submission to mediocrity of conformity of the hive, flock and herd. It is time to turn outward toward innovation, liberty and Life. Follow the path of cooperative growth, social and individual enlightenment and the peace of being left alone to pursue our own today and tomorrow.

We are the turkeys and the snake. Waiting.