A celebration of the summer of love is upon us. Its rimming with ideals like empowering women, immigrant rights, peace, and the saving the environment. Its pretty fucking awesome but I wonder how much we, in 2007 are like those in the late 60's.

We all meander around muttering sweet nothings into the ears of society promising a better tomorrow and clinging to our ideals like a nun clings to her virginity. The problem is that its still really fucking selfish. I always thought as a kid I would be a revolutionary. Now, in my mid twenties I see that winning the race was never my perogative. Perhaps the romantic vision of the revolution was a mere romantic vision. The real romance lies deeper than the perception of  'a better tomorrow' and 'doing it for the kids'. While we can't simply live through love for someone else we most certainly cannot do it for ourselves or by ourselves either.

Maybe in and of itself the romanticism of love is deeper than any of us could have ever imagined. Its easy to feel swept away by its presence and makes us as a people lose sight of logic completely. The biggest problem is that we are all in love with ourselves. Maybe the old boy scout slogan rings true in, "Do a good turn daily." as this is a way of incorporating our love of each other with ourselves.

There is real danger in this. Many religious texts speak of agape love and the love of supernatural sources as the integral bonds that hold and shape our universe. Love has caused so much hate. In fact, a real love shared between two people may indeed be more so precious as an investment of time. It is something that changes us forever. The scariest part is giving love freely might be to see it malformed and mishapen. What if we as a people are not ready? I think sharing love can cause the merger of identities. In a sense, shared love means becoming part of something bigger than ourselves.

So you meet someone and you fall in love. You decide to give them what you've got and they in trust, do the same. The two people that were before singularities are now a piece of something larger. It changed from me and you to "us."  When speaking of religion and belief structures the agape love shared by God to you, or "us" has caused a great rift among the lovers of humankind and is in the forefront of humanities largest identity crisis of why we, as lovers, want to help each other.

When helping others it becomes of the most importance to both drop the filter and let your own mirror of morality never bounce an image back to the person that is desperately looking for a way to do nothing more than thank you and perhaps in some cases wonder "why?". Keep the egoism in check but remember that one man's perceptions are nothing more than perception. We as a people get to choose what we believe and when sharing love there has ceased to be a reason to call back or ask questions. It may not be a sustainable way of life, but is most certainly a respectable practice.

Be careful with love and how you show it because it will most likely never make sense. There is nothing logical about it. Einstein once said: "Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love." Remember to tread lightly with your words and be skillful with your actions surrounding love and romance. Love is bound to cause great heart ache and tears. It can and often times will arouse fear, jealousy, and even hate. Believe that finding and pursuing love can be a worthwhile endeavor. Know that Love can kill. Never forget that, in Love, it will not be about you or me.

On a lighter note, the word "Roam" is pretty fucking cool. So is Jorge Ben.

Many people are looking for something, it seems to be in our nature as human beings that we all strive for something. Some people look for wealth, others love, and some may even look for magic. We have this thing inside us that wants something that seems so unobtainable. It could be a motivating factor for alot of people.

There is a problem, the more you search, the more difficult it becomes to obtain it. People that search for wealth may often go by the phrase "Dress for success." While there may be some merit to this it has absolutley nothing to do with achievement. Its merely type casting yourself into a role. Most of the wealthiest people probably never dresed for a wealthy success. They merely focused on achievement and the attire was something that came with it. Merely wearing the mask of a rich man, cannot make you into one. The same is true for love. You can tell yourself that you love the world and everyone in it but it makes no difference if you are a racist. The last is an exciting one. Some people search for magic, this could be the most illusory. Imagine seeing a girl in an airport one hundred thousand miles from home and knowing that you were going to have her. That way her hair brushed her face and the way she smelled and danced was just for you. In fact, in all the things you knew. You knew that she was the one and at that very moment you struck while the iron was hot.

One friend recently wrote an essay entitled "Just play along". It confronts a universal theme where you just play along for the rest of your life or you buy into the suspension of disbelief as the job of the curious mind that belongs to humans. He mentions saving and awakening as key words. Both of these extremes are what makes us murderers, theives, and inspires a feeling of entitlement to our own dillusions. Do successive coincidences persuade your mind to just play along? Do the synchronicities of life put you into a tailspin of beauty and a feeling of belonging?

A girl I know recently wrote about a successive group of coincidences and wrote about them and how they made her feel. I have to say, personally, this is like a brain virus. These strings of coincidences are everywhere. The real problem and sickness comes from the realization of these strings and looking for them. All of a sudden the mind is overloaded with a billion streams of code searching for a common thread. Does this really motivate people? If so, to what ends?

I find that the more I look, the more crazy I feel. If I hear a spout of racism I confront it in my own mind. It's important that I do because if I didn't I have accepted racism in my life as a piece of myself. I can't play that way. While there may be some deep racist or homophobic threads in my own code I refuse to let them execute and if they do I make an effort to identify them so that the proverbial sector can be marked as bad. I owe this to myself and who I want to be. Is this motivator the duality of ourselves? Is there anyone that is comfortable with all their thoughts and can own them all? If you could, would it then be all about you? Would you be a rich man, or someone looking for some soul food?

Life calls to the dreamer and tells him to wake the fuck up. Love calls to the loveless and shows him how. Do we really have a choice to percieve things in a different way? I mean, youre never too old right? How do we change our perception if not by giving ourselves to someone elses. If you did, and found that you didn't their outlook on life would the aforementioned perceptive experience know be part of your own? Can I trust you to not try to scare me to my breaking point? Are you willing to strike that hot iron knowing it will burn you? Can you confront your fears with the courage of a lion in winter? Can you give it without knowing what it is? Can anyone claim to know? I believe you can.

I know who's latte I like the best. Could I identify it blindly? I'm not sure, but I feel pretty fucking sure its got less to do with the coffee and more about the beauty thats pouring into my cup.

please read essays.dayah.com and check out thetiashow myspace blog; both have incredible talent.