What a world, what a world (Lessons of life from the big city)

We live in a world of fast lanes, one-way streets, redneck comedians, blue-haired hookers, bloodthirsty pitbulls & tame lions.

A world where teddy bears can make any child smile, and a legend becomes legendary only in death.

A world where black is black and white is white...unless the brush happens to dip into the ink of another culture and paint a different type of story.

A world of smoke bombs, dirty bombs, mail bombs, car bombs and da bomb (but oddly enough, no WMD's).

A world of post-it notes and paperclips, of poverty and harelips.

A world with a McDonald's, a Starbucks and a porn store on every corner.

A world that applauds triumph over pain and oppression, while at the same time turning a deaf ear to the voices weak with hunger whispering a request for spare change.

A world where the site of terror and death has become a tourist attraction to point at and take photos of.

A world where you can spell out your life history through a series of boxes to be checked or unchecked.

A world where we change the channel from a Feed The Children commercial, but will watch an infomercial about a revolutionary blender for an hour.

A world that admires and respects spirituality...as long as you keep it to yourself.

A world in which money equals freedom. No matter how you make it, earn it, steal it or keep it.

A world in which sensuous tongues speak lies in poetry. Anything to make the girls swoon...right into their bed.

A world that makes beautiful music, and even more beautiful people through whose veins the music flows.

A world where teenagers apologize for saying the "F" word, but will fuck anything in sight.

A world where a church will spend thousands of dollars on a state-of-the-art sound and light system with one hand, and with the other do away with bus routes that bring the poor kids to youth group due to "financial reasons".

A world where talent and passion simply are not enough.

A world where grass grows to be walked on, flowers grow to be picked and chickens are grown to be deep-fat fried.

A world that has made madmen of us all...or is it we who have made the world mad?

The world in which we now live is as lovely as it is treacherous...as fruitful as it is barren...as helpful as it is heartless.

How easy it is to choose to make the world a better place at its grandest levels, with our charities, our institutions, our foundations.
But why do we so often fail to fix the world one moment at a time?

Cynicism threatens my very existence, it's claws are at my throat.
But then I feel the hand of a stranger help lift the cumbersome weight of my overpacked suitcase, carrying it up not 1 or 2, but 3 seemingly endless flights of stairs in the hot, stale air of the subway.

This world seems to be made up of moments, not events.
Of split-second reactions and of second chances.

2 minutes of genuine consideration is worth twice as much as 2 hours of idle small talk.

It's been such a long life...and yet it frightens me how quickly it passes by.

I think I have hope for the world yet. I have to. If I don't choose to take care of it, who will?