Thunder down the ancient hallway

taking the stairs only one at a time...

I'm beginning to think enemies, or rivals, are as important as friends.

Few things can tell you as much about yourself as looking at yourself through the eyes of an opponent. But the enemy must be worthy. An equal or a superior, nothing less. Friends tend to lull one into a sense of complacency. It's only an enemy who will truly show you where you stand.
Think of life as a staircase. You've climbed a few steps, there are still some to go. Think of each step as a stage in life. Look closely at what made you worthy of taking the next step. Look closer and you will find opponents. Forget the ones you steamrollered, the very fact that you steamrollered them removes them from the equation. Think of the ones who shaped who you are today. Ten years from now, stand shoulder to shoulder with that person, and compare.
That is the sum total of your life as an individual.

***********************************

I sometimes fail to understand those who do not indulge in intoxication, in one form or another. Everything is a drug, even coffee.

But intoxication is something else. I believe intoxication and spirituality is all we have to help us see beyond what we are conditioned to see.

Spirituality is for saints.
Intoxication is all I've got.

***********************************

Between working and worrying about the future, between eating and commuting, between dreaming and postponing, between sleeping and waking...where did life go?
It was those years of college when I was most alive. Most in the moment. Those days when everyone was equal - equal opportunity, equal talent, equal dreams. Those people who knew you when you were young, your peers for life. All you'll ever measure yourself against, in the darkest recesses of your mind.

While I ramble on incoherently and rather pointlessly, leaving no mark on the footprints of those before me, who have expressed these feelings in far more eloquent terms, the point is this - we need someone to tell us at the right time that this is as good as it gets. Like Kevin Spacey's character in 'American Beauty' said about his morning shower and associated activites thereof : it's all downhill from here on.
But isn't 'downhill' supposed to be easier?
The problem is we don't listen to those who advise us to enjoy to the hilt the moments that make up the last few years of adoloscence. And this is the biggest curse of those with time on their side.

Youth is wasted on the young.

follow the sound of your heartbeat now
I'm in the room at the top, you're at the end of the line...

^