"As the Ruins Fall" - C,S, Lewis

For several years now, I have read this poem on my birthday. Growing older has helped me realize the interconnectedness, our need for one another and ultimately our need for a God bigger than we could imagine.

Thank you all for joining me on this merry adventure, I look to many more years with you all.

-Matt

** ** ** ** **

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

Knowing does help.
Actually.

Knowing just what the &$%^ is going on would be nice.

"Anyone with half a brain
Could spend their whole life howling in pain
‘Cause the dark is everywhere
And Penny doesn’t seem to care
That soon the dark in me is all that will remain

Listen close to everybody’s heart
And hear that breaking sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart
And crashing to the ground

I cannot believe my eyes
How the world’s filled with filth and lies
But it’s plain to see
Evil inside of me is on the rise "

"
death, it doesn't scare me thinking that you're somewhere on your way
i can't go on pretending i might never see the day
it's not hard for me to picture but makes me feel out of place
i hope i'm not afraid when i see you face to face

to some you're like a prison when they've yet to taste freedom
and maybe you feel bitter because Jesus broke your kingdom
once you felt so powerful and power made you happy
but now you're like a ferry boat
now you're like a taxi

when i die whatever you might say, don't say i'm gone
gone is not the word for someone who finally found his way back home"

Trying not to feel so...
Confused.
Trying not to feel so...
Bitter.

And all on my birthday too.

Broken Synapses

Another milestone,
the year out of the way
so why of all feelings
is a tightening like a millstone?

I want thing to work.
Words to rhyme.
Couplings to beings.

I'm tired and worn out that...I don't even know why.

"Lonely Day" - System of a Down

So...twenty-six.
Yikes.
This is awkward...