Reading and writing are all that stand between memory and oblivion.
--Paul Winfield, Gargoyles (episode: Merlin)
This column, I've put a few choice quotes that are near and dear to my heart. Maybe they'll give you the same inspiration. Afterall, where else does inspiration come from but what you come to?
Escape
I've never seen her like this! Not but once before. Weeping. Bleeding. Her sweat blended and became red as the moon of the Revelations. Emptiness in her heart and Armageddon in her eyes. Had I not been there for her that night, I would have been someplace more peaceful, burying my closest friend with half of her wrists left with her.
We lived in almost total dismay. She had a drunken father who beat her half the times he was ever conscious. I had a father who had just quit beating me years ago. We hung out with a club, but aside for a few guys, we only had each other. Our closest friend was killed, and all we could do was watch him die. Together, we buried him. That day we discovered all of the harsh realities of life, as well as our hidden love for each other. In short, two children just grew up.
We were warriors, but that didn't stop our sorrow for our friend, nor our feelings for each other. But she was going to be taken away from me. In the adult world, we had no voice. I could not tell my father of her because I knew he would take me away from her. We couldn't talk to the social workers because they wouldn't care. They'd laugh and say that we didn't know what we were talking about. What we thought then is what I think now: If only they knew, they'd understand.
Our last night together was one I will never forget. All that night, we talked of a "private paradise" where none of these worries would be necessary. A place where we could be together with no responsibilities, no worries, no psychoes, and no one keeping us apart! All have dreamed of such a place, but it has not yet been discovered. We could only dream--and pray!
But our prayers have not been answered. For we had escaped. One has not found a definite home; the other had to live with a new family in a world of utter materialism. I had moved to many different cities and states. So many places. None of them as soothing as within her arms. As sad as I am without her, I am happy for her. At least now she will not be terrorized by empty-headed gangs, nor will she be beaten or ignored by a drunken father who neither really knew of nor cared for her existence.
Before we left each other, we made a solemn promise to God and to each other. We have promised that on a full moon night, we shall gaze upon it and pray that we meet again in the paradise that we spoke of that night.
When you deviate from doctrine and succeed, that maneuver--no matter how odd--will become doctrine.
--Roger Dustin Bellings
If you're ever trapped between a rock and a hard place, choose the Hard Rock place!
--Brian Patrick White