It's folly to chase the American dream and just plain expensive to pursue

It's folly to chase the American dream and just plain expensive to pursue

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

Why do people in the InterCitys riot when in truth they are the one's with the freedom? They are not condemned to pursue the American dream. The rioter's know and we know that the majority are excluded from the good life. It's a pipe dream to think one can have it all if one is just one of the troops; not a rock star, not a NBA player and not forever and perpetually young and beautiful.

A few years in the future it will be clear that it's folly to chase the American dream and just plain expensive to pursue.

Ten years from now those onerous health insurance premiums will destroy one's health and the student loan debt will have become unsustainable.

What a bill we pay for a few glorious years lived in the serene suburbs after a decade or two of pursuing an education followed into toiling  at a job we feel alienated by.

Blink and the beautiful children that played at that grand house in the suburbs have themselves stepped on the treadmill of chasing the American dream.

Why do people riot and what does it mean that they do?

Is the chase of the American dream a pursuit of a dream deferred [1] or is it a pipe dream to have it all and be forever young, beautiful, wealthy and secure in the suburban fortress with green lawns and your favorite chair where you sit on your private recently power washed deck?

Still I would do it again. Same cast, beautiful children, go back more than a few years to a happy family, healthy bank account and shiny new car and the serene life in the suburbs. My little American dream; sans reality, sans sustainability. Something was amiss, someone was secretly alienated.

Some people riot; some people change. The American dream, better deferred than lost in the reality of living.

[1] "what happens to a dream deferred?" by Langston Hughes

here's what I wrote before on rioting:

occupy wall street movement

fiction
edward w pritchard

Listen closely, it's the sound of change. Mock if you wish but you can't stop it from occurring. Needed change is trickling up, from the parks around wall street in New York City. A hard rain will fall and wash away many things. What does it mean?

Here's what I wrote before:

any one can break a window, but

fiction
edward w pritchard

Re: London riots, 08/09/11,
Any one can break a window, but only a master craftsman can build a window. Especially if the window is stained glass of a religious theme.

I am a master craftsman of stained glass windows like my Father before me. I travel all over the English Countryside creating stained glass windows in Gothic churches for the glory of God. I do this like my Father before me , my instructor, as did his Father, and his Grandfather..

My son has decided not to be a creator and builder of stained glass windows. He is breaking with the family tradition.

Instead of creating stained glass windows my son has taken to throwing a rock through one of the stained glass windows myself or my Father or his has created previously. The amazing thing about the situation is that my son has created a living for himself destroying stained glass windows.

Patrons and worshipers at the Churches where the broken windows are housed have taken to seeing secret messages from God in the reflection on the walls of the Churches from the effect of sunlight passing through cracks in the stained glass windows. Hundreds of pilgrims are coming to the Churches to see the secret messages from God.The secret messages are visible on the walls of the churches from the effect of sunlight passing through the hole and crack a rock caused to a stained glass window; a rock that was thrown intentionally by my son. The stained glass windows were originally created to explain the messages of God to those who couldn't read. Now again secret messages from God are revealed to the faithful from interpreting the images on the Church walls caused by light passing through cracks and holes in the stain glass windows.

My son's services are now very valuable. There is a six month wait to hire him to throw a rock through a window that destroys one of the exquisite stained glass windows that I, his Father, or my Father, Grand Father or Great Grand Father has created. I keep very busy myself in and around London creating new stained glass windows for him to break.

Any one can break a window, but only a master craftsman can build a window. Especially if the window is stained glass of a religious theme. Each new generation must create it's own way of looking at the world I suppose.
end

PS author is a great admirer of London, sad about the riots