Sitting on top of a mountain, I look out and see a grand overview of all that life encompasses in the city I live. The infrastructure, the jobs and homes and entertainment and technology. The relationships. And I wonder, what is it that we actually live for? What are the things that give us the greatest satisfaction in life?

Every generalization I have and want to make gets thrust aside. It’s just not as easy as narrowing it down to one category of thing like I want it to be. I may get just as much of a high on life from reading Mark Twain on a Friday night as you do from taking shots of tequila at your sister’s house. But the key is this—it’s those things, those experiences that give us the greatest times of our lives and that we can look back on and say “I am so freaking glad I did that,” those things where we feel alive and continue to feel alive just from the thought of them. So to say that any one thing is the key to happiness is to ignore our differences, which we can’t.

But I can say this: we’ll never know what experiences are the greatest ones for us unless we try things. Unless we’re constantly striving to experience new and wondrous things outside of what we know. How will we know that the rush of the ocean water around us brings us to life if we’re too afraid to throw ourselves in? How will we know the wonder of the world if we never go looking for anything outside of what we know? All of life is an experiment, and we are all scientists. We must live.

But to live is not good enough, because in this alone we forget about our brothers and sisters beside us. We forget that everyone else has a life that they want to live, and that their life is just as important to them as ours is to us. So we let live, as well, so that our life becomes only a blessing and never a curse to someone else. And these two things…this is it.

Live, and let live.

smr

We’ve been thrust into a reality that we cannot control, and even our own perception is formed by circumstance. No thought is original or even our own, no progress is permanent, no feeling is everlasting. Thus our lives consist of seeking answers to questions never meant to be asked, until at last we turn to one another and find comfort in the company instead.

November 23rd, 2011

“The six passengers on board a small plane that crashed in the Superstition Mountains Wednesday evening have been confirmed dead, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said.

Aboard the small twin-engine plane were: Joseph Hardwick, 22, mechanic; pilot and aircraft owner Russell Hardy, 31; pilot Shawn Perry, 39; and Perry’s three children, Morgan, 9, Logan, 8, and Luke, 6.” -AZ Central

I never knew any of the passengers, so I thought it would be insensitive to post this anywhere but my personal blog, but seeing the tears of my friend who knew Luke was enough to make me wonder what it must feel like to lose so much so fast.

So however feeble of an effort it may be, these words are for Luke.

For information on how to make a donation in Luke’s memory, contact Lauren’s Institute for Education: http://laurensinstitute.org/contact-us/.

***

Little buddy Luke
What do you want to be, friend?
You have the whole world in front of you
I always thought we’d never end.

Our time together
Could have never been long enough
And you should never ever wonder whether
The whole of my heart was yours to love

Your small hands were so soft in mine
As I knelt with you and looked into your beautiful eyes
I always told you to reach for the sky
I never would have thought it would be our goodbye

Little buddy Luke
You were such the shortest spark
But you lit the hearts of all you touched
And we will carry your flame for the rest of our lives

Now you sleep in the mountains
And I sleep by myself
But when the wind through the superstitions blows to the valley
You will be in my breath.

Like the red and gold rays of the Arizona sunrise
For the rest of my life, you’ll be the light in my eyes.

-smr

Too often importance is self-imposed before deserved,
as though fame and honor ought to precede heroic acts.
To claim the medal before running the race,
overly sure of your steady footing
and tragically doubtful of the other runners’ worths.
But to desire attention before cultivation of merit
bestows a facade of worth on the lowest of things:
the begging that creeps outward from a jealous disposition,
unaware of the scars that the hero must earn
or the blistering miles that the winner must run.

It’s inward the start of this journey begins.
To only look out is to start at the end.

smr

if my longing had wings, then the sky would be in my grasp,
turning around in the blue, breathing cloud mist
as I whisked my desires to new places
where those there would marvel
at how I flew.

but as I’d show them to soar,
my longing—satisfied—
would its feathers wilt,
and groundborne again I would find strange home.

the sweet silky tongue of the language I’d learn,
and the foreign curves of the landscapes
would be mine to float upon,
with new thoughts to love,
just as the old before.

and one day, assuredly, would come as before,
when familiar had turned
every wonder to grey,
that my longing would grow and know flight once again,
and again to the skies I would take.

smr

1) By positioning my feet closer together than I might on a ‘regular’ board, I maintain that all of the pressure stays between the four points of contact the board has with the ground, thus preventing the board from coming off of one or more of its (still normally sized) wheels. I then proceed to ride the board by taking one foot off at a time and using the friction between my shoe and the pavement to accelerate myself in a direction of my choosing (whilst staying with a velocity parallel to the surface of the earth, of course).

2) Cuz they deliiish (spesh wit da cheezus).

smr

i) to live logically and emotionally, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each.

ii) understanding of humanity to know how to help find solutions to our greatest problems, influence to implement them, and wisdom to know my place in it all.

iii) to see through my enemies’ eyes, help them see through mine, and emerge as friends from it.

iv) creativity that can change lives through new perspective, and eloquence to share it.

v) that all of my relationships be built on honesty and love.

vi) appreciation for the past that informs my actions in the present, with an eye for the future.

vii) never to live a day that doesn’t change my life for the better.

smr

Magic always happens at 5 in the morning.

If you haven’t seen my band While We’re Up (whilewereup.tumblr.com) play live recently, we re-arranged Color Games to be a little more epic. I just hooked up my recording hardware again for the first time in ages and decided to record a version of the new breakdown in the middle of the song. Voila, Color Games Breakdown a la Steven.

have you ever really danced on the edge?
is something still scaring you?
have you ever really danced on the edge?
the count of three is up.
have you ever really danced on the edge?
alright then tell me so—
have you ever really danced on the edge?
just hold my hand and jump.

I’ve found a means of expression for my sappiness.
God help us all.