 In times like these, when nuclear warheads are being moved into position, when weapons manufacturers can't keep up with the demand, when the pundits are making everyone stupid and crazy, when it's hard to remember Assange's face but you can't turn on a screen without seeing Zelinski, when our culture is manufactured on conveyor belts in New York, Hollywood, Arlington and Langley, when everything's fake but the bombs and blockades, when it feels like we're rocketing towards Armageddon next to Jeff Bezos in a spacesuit, when it feels like the angels have become smack addicts but have to settle for shitty fentanyl fixes, when it feels like God got kicked out of the group home and has to sell his plasma and sperm for cash, when it feels like heaven must be powered by smoggy 19th century London coal, when it feels like the angel and the demon on humanity's shoulders are double fucking our ear canals, when the bastards of sleeves full of bottomless aces, while we're still trying to learn the rules, when annihilation feels like a certainty and transcendence like it's fairytale, it helps to have somewhere solid to take your stand. In times like these, when everyone's so alienated they have to consume chemical intoxicants together just to share affection with each other, when everyone's so lonely they trap animals in their homes with them so at least they have something that can't leave, when everyone's so afraid of their own vulnerabilities they preemptively attack anyone who lowers their guard, when everyone's pouring their lives into generating profits for miserable employers who will never have enough, when everyone's being driven mad by the pointlessness of a civilization built around wealth extraction, when everyone's allowing themselves to be sedated into a coma so they can't experience their own despondency, when the radiant authenticity of nature is paved over to build cinemas to watch CGI creatures in CGI worlds, when the sacred song of the heart is getting drowned out by desperation for dopamine hits from strangers on apps, when the causeless joy of being keeps getting lost to fear and insecurity, it helps to have some grounding in the changeless, in times like these truth can sneak in like a thief, like a ray of light through the smallest crack, like a children's cereal mascot finally nicking a bowl of that delicious sugary starch, oh my god it's got marshmallows and tansy milk neon colors oh fuck oh god I'm coming, like a ninja, like Batman, truth can sneak in and bonk you on the head, leaving you unable to see anything but the primal oneness, unable to remember how you ever got things so mixed up, like Gilligan when he got hit with the coconut, except good, in times like these no matter how fucked up you are you can sometimes catch Buddha winking at you in the mirror, in times like these everything is so tenuous the satori can come crashing in at any moment, and at times like these Shiva can just get tired of putting on the act and take off the you mask and break character, in times like these anyone's petty and irrelevant natterings can be interrupted by the hatching of their heart we are such a weird mascara street runny nose ape mutants we are sharp toothed blood splashing murder monkeys we are honey hearted giants with galaxies in our eyes I really hope you know how beautiful you are no matter how hard things are and no matter how hard things get you contain vast universes and I wish I could make a full-length Broadway musicals out of all of them no matter what happens I will love you through and through until the heat death of the universe and beyond and we might just get our miracle after all beautiful ape mutant we might get our miracle after all in times like these anything is possible in times like these anything can be in times like these we've all got nothing to lose which means we've got nothing to lose by leaping