There Was A Time...Then We “Grew Up”

There was a time, not too long ago, when it seemed we could get things to make sense, once again

But, now, dear friends, as we grow so old so quickly, it’s gotten far too late to make any real amends

We had our chances and our great potentials, lives starting out below clear skies and fresh rainbows

That was a time before the pursuit of our happiness morphed into a vapid, blind & destructive greed

We had a chance to make a difference but instead chose to lurk beneath a dark corporate anonymity

But there really was a time when it would not have to have turned out in this reckless & empty way

It is not evil that drives us now, but rather a hedonistic, shortsighted lifestyle filled with empty noise

As CEOs, huge bonuses met by a responsibility to stockholders for short term profits became our goal

Once we stood tall, lean, long-haired & clear-eyed with a mind to make things better in this world

Now our strength lies in an angry bellowing catechism of for-profit Faux News Neocon soundbites

We looked upon our elders as some strange & alien race with which we had nothing in common

Today we friend our kids, expensively trying to curry their favor as we helicopter their every step

There was a time when we learned to work with our hands – building, repairing and improving

Now our people do all that sort of thing for us, our precious time being far too valuable to squander

Once we cooked for ourselves & others without any factory food containing 50 or more ingredients

Today, the processed food industry meets our needs from Natural to Lean and everything in between

We were filled with yearning for the Great West and hitched all across the Intermountain wonderland

Currently our vacations are lame cruise ships, lumbering RVs or tacky, polluted tourist destinations

Our work had to challenge us, make a difference and contribute to some kind of progress for society

We morphed into a herd of brown-nosed suckups, shoulder-climbing & down-kicking towards success

There was a time when we searched for soul mates to walk with beneath that rainbow for a lifetime

Laying awake after another brutal verbal slugfest we wonder - Where has that other person gone?

Peace and good brotherhood would help remake the world in a kinder, gentler and safer way

Now we uncritically support each dEfense increase and clamor to bomb places we can’t find on maps

Somehow we didn’t think it was stupid or useless to study earth science to try & help save the planet

Luckily, we got our MBAs part-time at night and worked our way up to empty project manager jobs

Long ago learned the lesson that alcohol was a whole lot more dangerous than Mexican ditch weed

Graduated to designer vodka martinis every freakin night and learned to mainly ignore the hangovers

Took up meditation and brain wave control with an eye towards cultivating an inner spiritual growth

Now we make irreversible and guilt-free decisions in private council with our mass Personal Saviors

Took long hikes & backpacking trips far out into the glorious mountain wilderness savoring the silence

Now we clamor for all our national lands to be accessible to our unmuffled ATVs & snowmachines

Spent years trying to become educated reading hundreds & hundreds of diverse authors & subjects

All information is now but a simple click away and we no longer require any studious concentration

We would hold politicians to high standards of decency, honesty and morality, for the good of us all

Now we parrot their marketer’s soundbites & vote for those whose masters outsource our way of life