‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.’

We live in prisons of our own making. Eyes are watching. Wear this kind of hat and that kind of shoe. Purchase a car that will impress. Buy more homes than you can afford. Introverts must become extroverts. Step outside your comfort zone into the forbidden zone. If you are uncomfortable in the banned zone act like you are not.

Introverts are closeted extroverts. We all should be extroverts the loud among us proclaim. Reach out to people who do not want to be reached. Wear the extrovert mask of excitement rather than the quiet mask of reflection and sense of place. There really is a square hole for our square peg.

Baby Boomers unite. You need a nice home and two nice cars. You need to golf. You must climb the financial ladder of success. Vacations are fun even if you are not into them. You kids must attend the best universities. Cocktails are fun. Cigars are enjoyable. Church is for people like you. The modern-day club of the elites. Preachers must not preach too long and not offend.

Poor folks are poor for a reason. Have they applied themselves? Are they self-motivated? Don’t they have a rich uncle?

The Sun is setting on our country. It must be the poor among us fault. The goal of Christianity is to be rich like Christ. This is what the preachers tell us. Christ owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the mountains. Jesus will make you rich if you pay your tithes. God has two camps of humans. One is damned for Hell and the other is special and select.

Weary eyes look out on a splendid world. How do I measure up? I do not fit the mold of many expectations. Let me be who I am…let me do me.

‘You are welcome here,’ Preacher told the Gay man. ‘I love you for you not a facsimile of you.’Preacher said. ‘The world has an abundance of cardboard cutouts of what is considered normal…do not be deceived,’ Preacher said comfortingly. ‘I watch the confusion and fear, it is not the expectation of the Creator,’ Preacher whispered.