NOTE:  This is part of something larger I’m working on.  That’s the working title.  Not sure yet where it’s all going…but wanted to get some part of it out there for a sense of progress, if nothing else.

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if you want
to be happy,
you have to
believe in something.

Why?
Is it not possible to be happy
simply by knowing what you don’t believe?
For instance,
I don’t believe in you, and I
feel fine.

how can you not believe in me?

I’m of the opinion that
I’m really just listening to myself.
And while I’m not happy,
I’m also not unhappy.
While that may be a poor substitute
in some people’s eyes,
it’s better than the negation of despair
and better, also, than the credulity
of bliss.

oh, come on.
you’ve got to believe in something.
the world is controlled by unseen forces
out for your soul.
you have a duty
to fight.
to believe in the struggle,
if nothing else.

Not buying it.
Stuff happens, sometimes for a reason,
sometimes not.  The powerful
have too much greed to coordinate
their efforts so consistently
over such long spells, and anyway,
to buy it would mean
I’ve got to fight you as well,
and I’m having too much fun right now.

what about ghosts?
the spirits of the dead
returning to seek answers
or stuck here thinking
they are still alive?

Nope, can’t believe in ghosts,
at least not that way.  I believe
we see stuff, or at least I have,
but I’m not in any position to judge
causes, only effects.  I know they happened,
know what I’ve gained and lost from those visions,
but don’t care to know
why they happened.

you’re pretty messed up
if you don’t know why things happen
and don’t care to know.

I don’t believe that either.
I think “why” is too often a jumble of trees
that keeps the forest hidden,  too often
a muddying of the ocean that keeps you
looking at the bottom for treasure when
there’s so much gold in the horizon.
I like forests.
I like my oceans full of shipwrecks I can’t find.
I don’t need to believe in forests:
I can see them.
I don’t need to believe in the ocean:
it’s spread out before me.

you rootless tree,
you rudderless ship…

Perhaps…but,
I choose my best self from each moment of self.
I move.

I can slip my bonds at will.

I am free.

you believe that?