T. REILLY

It’s a world full of ugly. Feels that way right now, a kind of heaving grotesque of the human condition where the worst of ourselves reside and fester like an infected wound. Friends, co-workers, relatives…maybe even the person sharing your bed. Like their brain is caught in a thick muck of sick. What is this strange phenomenon?

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We act like this is the first time the societal construct has experienced this denigration of order. It is not. In fact, what we are experiencing is a very common condition that sometimes becomes compounded, exacerbated, aggravated, on fire – fear. The condition, when fed the right kind of toxin, swells and pushes on every organ and causes a jittery paranoia of everything not alike, and it spreads.

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What is the cure for such an invasive and overwhelming visitor? How can we overcome the predatorial nature of an extreme degree of the emotional spectrum that in its most feverish throws causes irrational, even completely erratic behavior?

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The cure is simple, if of course, the brain permits the introduction of the inoculation. The cure is (pause for dramatic effect), the little things. To be more specific, allowing oneself to find the beauty and pleasure in the little things. What makes the world a revolving enigma that seems infinitely complex, is how many of those little things are around us all at once, distinctly separate from each other and yet somehow all connected by the human experience. Birds chirping, bees buzzing, trees swaying, hands holding, puppies nuzzling, children laughing, parents hoping, rain pouring, sun warming, lovers embracing, dreamers dreaming.

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The little things.