In a mirror that reflects
Our collective ugliness
Filtering out what could
Be our best beauty by
Seeing the whole as one
Reflecting back the parts
That only by themselves
Need the most work
Taken over by individual
Subjective perspectives to
Shedding excess weight
Not by diet and exercise
Which would be healthier
Instead, surgical removal
A temporary quick go-to
Needing extra medical care
Later, more often, and costly
Removing things unwanted
Only because some parts
Are viewed as undesirable
Because a head said so
Who thinks that in a gilded age *
Everything ought to be golden
While opportunities could
Be taken to take advantage
See their potential beauty
Beneficial to the entirety
Since they are of the whole
Not in the first place
But always all ways
Groom those in such a way
As to bring out their
Useful and effectiveness
That the entire self could
Recognize how beautiful
It is always all as one
*
“As the United States grew into the world’s leading industrial power during the late 19th century, those atop the economic ladder in America’s Gilded Age accumulated spectacular fortunes. By 1890, the country’s 4,000 millionaires held 20 percent of the country’s wealth, and with that enormous affluence came colossal political corruption.
Corporate titans could buy anything they wanted—including politicians. Richard White, professor emeritus of history at Stanford University and author of The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896, says the Gilded Age was among the most corrupt eras in American history primarily because of “the rise of corporations and the growth of modern means of communication that intensified the way corruption can work.”
“This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer,” former president Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in his diary in 1886. “It is a government by the corporations, of the corporations and for the corporations.”
Politicians took spectacularly handsome bribes from corporations and demanded kickbacks as the helping hand they extended often came with an open palm.
– History.com
As long as I’m sidetracked…….
“Corporate titans could buy anything they wanted—including politicians.” – History.com
“Elon Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to back President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, campaign finance records filed Thursday show.”
– CBS News
Oopsie
An “unpaid” government employee overseeing “your” money. Cutting budgets, departments, without Congressional approval. Sending in henchboys to access the treasury and your Social Security.
“The Trump administration’s use of (FOR SHOW) military aircraft for deportation flights is running a high price while at the same time moving fewer migrants than lower-priced commercial charter flights.
The cost of flying C-17 military cargo planes is high, costing roughly $28,500 per hour of flight time, according to Reuters. The flights — averaging between 10 and 13 hours — take twice as long as chartered removal flights.
The flights with 80 people can cost around $3,918.75 per person to Guatemala from El Paso, according to an analysis by the El Paso Times using flight tracking software data.
A similar contracted charter deportation flight from El Paso costs taxpayers roughly $1,168.75 per person to Guatemala. The calculation is based on only 80 people on a removal flight, which generally carry 120 to 125 migrants.
The higher cost of President Donald Trump’s military deportations per migrant has raised condemnation from lawmakers.
“It is an abuse of taxpayer resources; it is a violation of the public trust,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said. “It’s a betrayal of the taxpayer because there is a cheaper alternative.”
– El Paso Times
I guess if the head of the DOGE
Wasn’t so far up 45/47’s arse
He could cut that expense also
By taking bipedal earthling artists
Who may have escaped bad or
Dangerous and violent circumstances
To come to a place of safety and hope
Only to have the alleged leader
In a nation of mostly immigrants
Destroyer of indigenous peoples
Having the compassion-less
Wherewithal to (get this………..)
Send them back to that vile situation
Which to my best, yet vaguest understanding
Is not something that Jesus fella would do
Ooopsie
NOT SOMETHING, THAT JESUS FELLA WOULD DO
So if/when you are allegedly against
The concept of human trafficking
Be against the reverse of it, too
If not in action, because after all
You can not fight city hall
Realizing every bipedal earthling artist is a
Citizen of this world in this dense dimension
As if this wasn’t dark enough, bring a flashlight
To put it in context, using metaphorical language
Abortion is reverse human trafficking by
Sending the spirit (the ghost in the machine)
Back to the spirit realm, which may have been
Leaving a good situation to change a bad one
But was circumstantially unwanted and sent back
Nobody knows, certainly I do not, no way at all
At what point does a fetus so sacrosanct become
So unwanted after it comes out of its protective womb
To be placed (forced) into detention centers
Wink wink (camps) at Guantánamo Bay
Ought not the Christian in Christian nationalist
Be more Christ like first than nationalistic
Not rooting out all the non-white, non-Christian
Having once escaped religious persecution themselves
Do we have to go through this shit again
Sorry folks, Mars is not an option
Not now, not ever. Deal with it
This year, I was going to veer off of using
Comedian’s quotes and closing comments
However, since I have not used this one yet,
Will leave it here in its entirety.
“Here’s one more item for you, the last in our civics book: rights.
Boy, everyone in this country is always running around, yammering about their fucking rights. I have a right. You have no right. We have a right.
They don’t a have right. Folks, I hate to spoil your fun but there’s no such thing as rights, OK.
They’re imaginary. We made them up, like the Boogie Man, the Three Little Pigs, Pinocchio, Mother Goose, shit like that.
Rights are an idea. They’re just imaginary. They’re a cute idea. Cute but that’s all. Cute and fictional.
But if you think you do have rights let me ask you this, where do they come from? People say, “Well, they come from God. They’re God-given rights.”
Oh, fuck, here we go again. Here we go again. The God excuse. The last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument, “They came from God.” Anything we can’t describe must have come from God.
Personally, folks, I believe that if your rights came from God, he would have given you the right to some food every day, and he would have given you the right to a roof over your head. God would have been looking out for you.
God would have been looking out for you, you know that? He wouldn’t have been worrying about making sure you have a gun so you can get drunk on Sunday night and kill your girlfriend’s parents.
But let’s say it’s true. Let’s say God gave us these rights. Why would he give us a certain number of rights?
The Bill of Rights in this country has ten stipulations, OK? Ten rights. And apparently, God was doing sloppy work that week because we’ve had to amend the Bill of Rights an additional 17 times, so God forgot a couple of things like slavery. Just fucking slipped his mind.
But let’s say God gave us the original ten. He gave the British 13. The British Bill of Rights has 13 stipulations. The Germans have 29. The Belgians have 25. The Swedish have only 6. And some people in the world have no rights at all.
What kind of a fucking, goddamn, God-given deal is that? No rights at all? Why would God give different people in different countries different numbers of different rights? Boredom? Amusement? Bad arithmetic? Do we find out at long last after all this time that God is weak in math skills?
Doesn’t sound like divine planning to me. Sounds more like human planning. Sounds more like one group trying to control another group. In other words, business as usual in America.
Now, if you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you. Next time you’re at the computer, get on the internet. Go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, I want you to type in Japanese Americans 1942, and you’ll find out all about your precious fucking rights, OK? All right. You know about it. You know about it. Yeah.
In 1942, there were 110,000 Japanese-American citizens in good standing, law-abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That’s all they did wrong.
They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had? Right this way, into the internment camps.
Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took them away, and rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges.
That’s all we’ve ever had in this country is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year, the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter.
You see how silly that is? Yeah. Sooner or later, the people in this country are going to realize the government does not give a fuck about them. The government doesn’t care about you or your children or your rights or your welfare or your safety.
It simply doesn’t give a fuck about you. It’s interested in its own power. That’s the only thing keeping it and expanding it wherever possible.
Personally, when it comes to rights, I think one of two things is true. I think either we have unlimited rights or we have no rights at all.
Personally, I lean toward unlimited rights. I feel, for instance, I have the right to do anything I please. But if I do something you don’t like, I think you have the right to kill me.
So where are you going to find a fairer fucking deal than that? So the next time some asshole says to you, “I have a right to my opinion, “you say, “Oh yeah? Well I have a right to my opinion, and my opinion is you have no right to your opinion.” Then shoot the fuck and walk away.
Thank you.
– George Carlin
“I only hope
Buyer’s remorse
Sinks in quick enough
So as to return
It’s defective product
Back to the reality TV
Hell that produced it.”
– Angelo Devlin
It is all power all the time
Attached at the hip of corruption
The helm residers are
Always temporary at best
Some longer than others
Passing torches of evil
Disguised as democracy
To placate the proletariat
While bemusing the bourgeois
With distractions and deception
Designed to deviate from divinity
By fighting amongst themselves
As power gains more power
Muddling the masses into malignancy
Twisting slavery into freedom
Ignorance as the ideal
Violence as the new peace
“Free speech as
Free as its thought
Controlled behavior
Reacts as its taught
Fighting for Peace
Can’t comprehend
Hate out of love
Is violent pretends”
– John Trudell
If it is not a war overseas
It is a war at home, all by
Dehumanizing humans
Just add enough stank
To its pronunciation and
Voila, you have a bogeyman
To be feared with an
Unconscious desire to eliminate
Having once yearned to be free
Doesn’t count as much now
Since one’s ancestors got here first
Well, second, but who’s counting
Because words control thoughts
Power controls words via deception
In and out of content and context
Focusing forever on the frivolous
Mundane, ridiculous, and benign
How do I think I may know this, you ask?
Because when I was about nine years old
I read a news article that I saved and copied
Finding it would circumstantially resurface
When I “needed” to reread it again to refresh
Here it is digitally for my readers to read.
The copy I found was originally published by N.E.L.P.A. News
Northwest Electric Light Power Association
“US Downfall Plotted 50 Years Ago” (now 106 years)
“In May of 1919 at Dussoldorf Germany, the Allied Forces obtained a copy of the “Communist Rules for Revolution. “
Nearly fifty years later, the “Reds” are still “following the rules.” As you read the list, stop after each item and think about the present-day situation and where you live, and all around the nation. We quote from the Red Rules.
A. Corrupt the young. Get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial; Destroy their ruggedness.
B. Get control of all means of publicity thereby :
1. Get people’s minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books and plays, and other trivialities.
2. Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
3. Destroy the people’s faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule, and obloquy.
4. Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
5. By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit, produce fear of inflation with high prices and general discontent.
6. Forment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders, and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.
7. By spacious argument, cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, continued faith in the pledged word, ruggedness.
C. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with the view of confiscating them and leaving the population helpless.
That was quite a list, wasn’t it? Now stop and think, how many of those rules are being carried out in this nation today? I don’t see how any thinking person can truthfully say that the communists do not have any part in the chaos, that is upsetting our nation. Or is it just coincidence? I doubt it!”
That last part was part of the article, not mine.
Methinks the word communist or ” Reds” is interchangeable with whatever the current bogeyman is at the time. It doesn’t matter. Could be bogeyman itself, when it is not, terrorists, or socialists, or transgenders, or the latest bogeymen, DEI. That “painful” diversity, equity, and inclusion subversion, that is causing fires and plane crashes, oh the horror.
Since it has letters, rearranged to spell DIE, or IED, which plays subconsciously into people’s easily triggered fears, for the sake of fear.
Walk back in your mind to each previous American president who has not presided over continuing a war or starting one to leave for each subsequent administration.
I do not even have to do a internet search engine search to know that since I have been alive 59 years, this country has always been in a state of violent conflict, with other countries either directly or with monetary or military support.
As a self-declared leader of the free world, it is certainly engaged in lots of killing of a lot of people. When on the surface, it tries so hard to save babies, “only to raise them to be dead soldiers.” – GC
China, which always seems to be a dangling threat, hasn’t had any major conflicts since 1979. Besides, why would they want to inflict harm on their best customer? That’s not good for business. Oopsie!
“We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.
Now, this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Power stands on top of a three-legged stool, conducting how each behaves so as to have a sturdy base to wield its constant power.
Even my GPS
Told me to go
Straight
At the……..
Roundabout
Either trying to
Get me killed
Others killed
Hurt or maimed
Or me arrested
Ticketed and fined
If I were to believe
What I was told
Without question
Yet, I conform to
Non-conformity
I disobeyed and
Went round, right
At the roundabout
Like my inner
Consciousness says,
I am controlling
The steering wheel
Which was more
Vere right, then left
At the third exit
Go right again to
Enter the highway
On my merry way by
Defying a voice of
Command, which only
Has authority when
I am fully aware it is
Trying to be helpful
At this point,
I don’t believe anything
While believing everything
Why not? It has all been
Protracted as well as reduced
To a meme or headline
Capturing doubt as an art
Convoluting science
With religion to prove nothing
2 + 2 might as well be 5, and 4
Numbers don’t exist in nature
We made them up for ourselves
For amusement, gambling, and taxes
Trade, weights, and measurements
Speed and distance either
Imperially or by metrics
Counting non existing money
A finger blaming who knows who
While the other three
Point at, you know who, who
Is responsible for perceptions
Of daily distractions
By not focusing on each
Miraculous moment
That occurs instantaneously
In the now, now, now, now….
Always, all ways, every which way
Forget the big conspiracies
JFK
9 11
Pearl Harbor
Gulf of Tonkin
Waco
Oklahoma
Flat Earth
Moon Landing
Which are all provable or not
If you follow the money, $
While the underlying conspiracies loom large
Keeping people suspicious against people
Via genders, immigration, climate change,
My team, your team, human ownership,
Alleged free speech, circumstantially
Eliminating intelligent speech and dialog
Red states, blue states, life beginnings,
Religions, guns, “drugs” vs. pharmaceutical
Poisons with warnings and permanent
Profits built-in, in case of a faulty product,
Debt ceilings, forest floors, wasted water,
Readily available water if only Canada
Would turn on that big faucet in Amerikkka’s
Newest northern fifty first state as soon as 47
Starts deporting the French unwanted immigrants
Ooopsie, got caught up in my own extrapolation
Just to show how, I, too, can be easily distracted
At least, that is my conspiracy schmeracy theory
As it comes with the alleged
Public presidential service job
For both the outgoing Joe
And the incoming schmuck
Seeing as how Gerald Ford
Accelerated this nonsense
By bypassing Congress and
The alleged “Rule of law”
Which are really just rules
Buy / by the rulers for the ruled
Which examined closely is the law
But where is the outrage
After all, both are riddled with
Unconscionable corruption
One “pre” pardoning non criminals
Plus, conveniently, family members
While the other, unpopularly
Pardons known violent criminals
Who won’t be deported because
Those criminals are loyal to their Royal
That alone ought to trigger
A peaceful, powerful revolution
Unfortunately, it will not happen
Because politics is like sports
With people picking their teams
Satiating a need to “belong” to
Something, even if it is duplicitous
Since the majority of the masses
Coagulate their chaos into one color
Though constant contradiction is
The standard bearer for both
As the “red” side will do everything
It can to save a fetus but will gladly
Arm and be armed to the teeth to
Kill anyone they feel is necessary or
Be willing to accept the order to do so
So much for saving, out of womb fetuses
The “blue” side will make sure you may
Extricate a fetus, like a pimple on a teenager
But go way out of their way to save a life
Of someone who has killed someone else
See how miraculously malleable morality
Is when one who has convinced themselves
Of mindless malignant moral superiority
Methinks people know that, but are so
Caught up in their own contradictions
It isn’t about doing the right thing but
Rather, what is acceptable within their herd
So it is not out of resignation that
A simple solution isn’t available
It is, however…….
The opportunity then permanently
Presents itself in personal behavior
Real responsibility and rhetoric to
Conduct themselves to their own
Highest autonomous authority and
Not put one’s self in a position where
Killing a human being is an option
There is no need to pardon my conscientiousness
Though you may pardon my bloated ego
For writing, my conscientiousness need not be pardoned
Would be a great
Place to start
Reducing them
To shards
Then fine dust
So that one
Can take
What remains
In order to
Breathe life into
The tiny particles
Making them
What most
Makes sense
To one’s self
Create a life
Of happiness
Be the God
That God / Word
Intended
All powerful
All knowing
All loving
All on your own
A construct
Of your mind
To make matter
What matters most
Not some easily
Indoctrinated
Sort of………..
Acceptable fantasy
Largely dictated by
Geography, language
Irrational customs
Drawings, images
Martyrs and bogeymen
That does not
Serve one’s
Evolution of
Self realization
In all of infinity
To bring relief
All by………….
Shattering beliefs
They are an automaton
Or a programmed robot
Yet, except for the hard drive
That runs the basic functions of
Heart, lungs, digestion & bowels
Everything else is recorded
Into the software through
Teaching and indoctrinations
Beliefs are bullied into brains
Whether it is God or democracy
Nationalism or bogeymen
Race superiority or gender fluidity
Generationally or instantly
It is all taught through
Innuendoes and impressions
Repeated and regurgitated
Via parents, society, and religion
The actual freedom to be
An individual imbued with
Independence and intelligence
Instinctual and inspired
By its host and surroundings
Is a far cry from the controlled
Consciousness of consumption
For the sake of more consumption
Buying your own chains that bind
To a life of debt, w/nonexistent money
Digitized numbers on a flashy screen
Satiating a modicum of happiness by
Believing one is “free” by having stuff
Speaking of non-ownership ownership
Does it not want to make you
“Puke in your soup” – George Carlin
Every time some nudnick refers
To a sports team as “My team”
(Because those members can
Manipulate a ball with hands or feet
They become so artificially proud.)
As if they are participating in profits
Or their waving, shouting, and gestures
Affect / effect any different outcome
Like a paid coach on the sidelines
Yet, knowing more about “their” team
Statistics, salaries, and scandals
Than their child’s school teachers or
Emotional stability and influencing friends
Owning nothing more than
Deceptive distractions from divinity
Occupying mind space with mush
“Give them bread and circuses, and they will never revolt.”
– Juvenal, a poet in ancient Rome.
That is where we are at folks. Wish us luck!
All because no one wants to think…….
For “Joe”
“There’s time to live and time to die
When it’s time to meet the maker
There’s time to live, but isn’t it strange
That as soon as you’re born, you’re dying…
…and reborn again??”
“Clairvoyant”
– Iron Maiden
What if instead
During the human “dying process,”
When you hear the term “end of life,”
It gets replaced with “end of chapter”
Since another will surely follow
Not to euphemise death, per se
As to pretend it does not occur
But rather change the perspective
As a continuation of an energy
That once materialized into
This dimension from another
(Why else, is it called, an arrival?
Because the Stork, comes from….?)
On a journey to yet a different realm
Serving purposes in various stages
The anticipation of their “arrival”
Smiles, coos, first words, crawling,
Eating, pooping, wiping, bathing,
Standing, walking, birthdays, speaking,
Peddling, dancing, singing, learning,
Playing, reading, engaging, testing,
Passing, failing, falling, trying, growing,
Developing a personality, understanding,
Making funny faces, laughing, crying,
Joking, lying, confessing, truthing,
Skiing, swimming, skating, sledding,
Stealing, returning, begging, apologizing,
Driving, speeding, crashing, healing,
Maturing, working, earning, saving,
Spending, wasting, drinking, recovering,
Dining, dating, anticipating, marrying,
Procreating, starting this process again,
Guiding, teaching, sharing, learning,
Traveling, sightseeing, experiencing,
Maturing, retiring, resting, sleeping,
Remembering, forgetting, forgiving,
Eating, pooping, wiping, bathing,
Smiles, grunts, last words, waving,
The consternation of their “departure”
This is where the story splits
They go on in a chapter you can’t read
While you re-read the chapter, they were in
Or burn the book depending on circumstances
Either way, it is all just energy
You experience as it occurs
Good, bad, indifferent, wasted
Remembered or forgotten
“All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.”
– Bill Hicks
“Heaven Can Wait”
“Can’t understand what is happening to me
This isn’t real. This is only a dream
But I never have felt, no I never have felt this
way before
I’m looking down on my body below
I lie asleep in the midst of a dream
Is it now could it be the Angel of Death has come for me
I can’t believe that really my time has come
I don’t feel ready. There’s so much left undone
And it’s my soul, and I’m not gonna let it get away
Heaven can wait / Heaven can wait
Heaven can wait / Heaven can wait ’til another day
I have a lust for the Earth below
And Hell itself is my only foe
‘Cause I’ve no fear of dying
I’ll go when I’m good and ready
I snatch a glimpse of the lights’ eternal rays
I see a tunnel I stand amazed
At all of the people standing there in front of me
Into the paths of rightness, I’ll be led
Is this the place where the living join the dead
I wish I knew this was only just a nightmare
Take my hand. I’ll lead you to the promised land
Take my hand. I’ll give you immortality
Eternal youth, I’ll take you to the other side
To see the truth, the path for you is decided
My body tingles. I feel so strange
I feel so tired. I feel so drained
And I’m wondering if I’ll ever be the same again
Is this in limbo or Heaven or Hell
Maybe I’m going down there as well
I can’t accept my soul will drift forever
I feel myself floating back down to Earth
So could this be the hour of my rebirth
Or have I died, or will I wake from dreaming?”
Heaven Can Wait…….
– Iron Maiden
Plus a little magic
Comedians are funny
Leaders lead
Comedians do not lead
Leaders are not funny
It confuses things
Comedians have
No one to lead
They are individuals
Leading themselves
Making people laugh
By telling the truth
Or embellishing
Exaggeration to make fun
Unfortunately leaders
Manipulate truths
To lead people
Incapable of
Leading themselves
In the end, nothing
Really ever changes
The question then is
Would you rather laugh
By hearing some truths
Or be lied to assuming it
Does someone else good
“Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.”
― Henri Bergson
The same goes for magicians
They do not describe how
They will perform the illusion
(Except for Penn & Teller
But, that’s another story)
They do it, and you are in awe
Trying to figure it out now & later
Yet, if they say they are going to
Pull a rabbit out of an “empty” hat
You focus on the hat and how….
Not to be distracted by sleight of mind
Of course, when no effort is made
To actually produce a rabbit
You realize slowly that there was never
Going to be any rabbit anywhere
That it was intended to string
You along from distraction
To distraction while no magic
Ever gets done, just a series
Of hyperbole for its own sake
Plus the ego of the petulant magician
With just enough audience members
Left to keep others from leaving by
Cajoling them into staying because
This time, he will do it….just watch
Not realizing, the suspense is killing them
If only the entire audience would just
Wake up, pack up, and leave the performer
He would have no one to perform for
Trouble is, we are a
Hopeful gambling species
A collective Charlie Brown
Trusting that this time
Lucy will hold the ball
So we can kick it forever far
Meanwhile, each time
No matter how many times
We trust and trust and trust
We land flat on our back
Winded, bruised, ashamed
But willing to trust again
Shame on us
So busy laughing and crying
At the comedy and tragedy
We fail to recognize
Our own ability to perform
Our own magic
Of being kind,
Helpful and compassionate
To our fellow space travelers
In other words……
Since we are all one……
To our selves
The entertainment for the next 4 years is not new. You’ve seen this entertainment through and through. Nothing will change or get done, but hopefully, at the end, you will be laughing and not crying boo-hoo.
My apologies to Jim Morrison
Looking at the world through a windshield. 