ACCEPTED

Home sick today. Can barely breathe as both lungs have been propelled from my body by racking coughs but I am thankful for one thing. Cable TV. I've been watching bits and pieces of movies all day... Hollywoodland was interesting. I never knew much about the late great Superman. What I know now seems kind of sad. I then switched over to Accepted with Justin Long.. who is a superQT and Lewis Black is, as always, hysterical. Although technically a comedy this one too made me sad. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about this group of kids who form their own "pretend" college because they can't get accepted anywhere else. Their desperate scheme turns into something of an innovation - students become teachers, students have a say in what they want to learn - tests and scores aren't the only things that matter, passion and creativity are the primary objectives. It's inspiring really except that, well, it's only a movie. And it got me thinking, and frankly somewhat depressed, when I realized that I've been so much more inspired in my life recently by film, by fiction and that although in its own right it's a beautiful thing, there's something wrong with the fact that real life rarely seems to offer the same inspiration or possibilities. A college that really cares about the creative minds of its students shouldn't be fictitious. A government that encourages independence and creativity and free-thought instead of cookie-cutter humanoids who blithely go about their days working the same soul-stripping monotonous jobs and then numbing themselves out on their time off while the gov't lines and relines its pockets with greenbacks.
Why can't a man like Robin Williams be president; why can't we say F**k you to a ridiculous job and go out and discover our own truths apart from labels and other people's expectations? Where is our quest, where is our adventure that doesn't fit so neatly between 9-5? Why do leaders of foreign countries think that Britney Spears is more important and more influential than our own president? Well, that one's simple. Because she's on the cover of every paper and magazine in the country. Isn't there something just a bit strange about the fact that we idolize, we crave celebrities, actors, Hollywood - all these things that aren't even real more than our own lives? Everyone wants so badly to be what they're not that we have a whole industry - a billion dollar industry at that - based on it. DOESN'T ANYONE ELSE SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT? One of the first things I used to ask people when I met them was, "What's your dream?" Most of them didn't even have an answer. Maybe they forgot. Maybe they seemed to difficult to achieve. Maybe money and dreams just don't go together very well - like oil and chocolate syrup. I don't know. But I'm tired of it. I think we all deserve a dream and I think that dream should be much MUCH easier to achieve. It shouldn't depend on how rich your parents were, whether you could afford to go to an ivy league school or whether you have a 4.0. We should ALL be able to have and create whatever we want in our world. I still believe that's possible (somewhere deep deep down beneath all the apathetic cynicism). If we believe it; if we pursue it with passion; if we help each other out. I have friends who can't conceive of a world without war. Why not? I mean really it's as simple as everyone agreeing not to fight, right? Who's the asshole in a world full of peaceable people that still wants to shoot off his pistol? And why do we still have so many assholes? I wish I had a solution. All I have are more questions and possibly more delusions. After all, I am taking a lot of herbs for my cold, so don't mind me....