Foreword
To those that might wonder why I would care to write such a piece as this here and now, I either have nothing to say or I may tug your ear right off that wonderful and terrible thing called a head. It is not my conscious intention to write of myself beyond a single folly I knowingly have turned tragic flaw, but I digress. So those that wish to partake only in the fiction may simply move onward. Those remaining: I will try to keep introductions short.
For the great majority of all the life I can actively remember, I was raised in a suburban neighborhood outside a small city. My immediate family spans a similar cover, including but my parents and a single, elder brother. Although I can comfortably say that I am not one to seek out social endeavors, I have found a handful of people I was acquainted with become my friends throughout time. With just these few interactions, it might be the apparent thing to say that this sounds of an isolated lifestyle devoid of many diverse ideas, but I treat the reader to hear me out.
When I was young, I plainly hated technology due to my father's influence. What little I knew I did not dare to expand. In my cockiness, I even judged those proficient with any of the large number of means with scorn. As time harbored experience, however, I grew akin to everyday use. That anger turned somewhat into more of a fear, something I still regard technology with to this day. However, this is exactly what made me want to learn about it, and the more I understood, the more I respected (and feared) it. To this day, my immediate family concerns me with most technical issues, but what does any of this have to do with the rest of my life?
The answer is simple: this such experience, being only one of many like it, has shown me how to pry open my mind. Those friends I had mentioned were from different walks of life, and, consequently, have begun a number of conflicts between each other and within me. I have seen the points of view from rich and from poor. I have seen, with help, from the eyes of African Americans, whites, men, women, young, old, collectivist, libertarian, and so many more. I am grateful to have had such a wide array of ideas in my youth, but as I am becoming an adult, I have taken the time to consider all of these viewpoints and I have been driven into concern.
As anyone knows, there have been a plethora of problems brought on by our mere existence which, to-date, there is no clear cut answer to. Although my mind first thinks of political matters, I fully well know that these questions exist beyond the governmental realm and are often more dire when they are personal. Perhaps it is a fear within me that has made it somewhat imperative to find a solution to these problems for, so I believe, as long as they remain unanswered, the problems which they represent will only worsen. But without clear right and wrong, I have been often driven to sleeplessness and its bigger, badder uncle, indecision.
For some time, I figured others had considered such troubles lightly. What is the meaning of life? To live as some may say openly. With such an unsought, lighthearted answer, I have feared that one or myself would simply go on with business, not caring to make more sense or meaning, and thus satisfaction. Without care, the very response in this case, as many, is nullified: one would end up making so little of life that they do not live. But as time would have it, I have met and intimately talked with individuals to know that there are others, countless, that all feel this same fear. This pressure and stress that underlies even our most unwary days.
Of course, being human, I have been and will be indecisive on many things. This very story in fact is me escaping from greater duties until I have sufficient thought and persuasive fear as to address them. Hence why I am beginning this story at a time when I am most busy! Knowing that everyone sees stress in life towards its responsibilities, I mean to create a tale both entertaining as to initially annul that fear, but capable of returning the reader back to doing whatever activity they find productive and ultimately satisfying, by simply reminding them in their entertainment that fear will course in their hearts at the consequences.
So without further-ado, please enjoy and be persuaded by the short, slice-of-life stories to come.