Life

Today in English, we did a Literary Lingering about a poem. The poem depicted a goldfish whose 5-second memory kept him constantly amused by the plastic castle in his bowl instead of his greatest desire-- living free in the ocean whish he could see from the window ledge his bowl sat on.
This is what I wrote...

'~*~'

It's people. We never have the chance to long for greater things, or be a part of greater things for we are too distracted with the shiny, petty castles in our lives.
How long has humanity lived in the present, ignoring the greatness of our past, and not striving to create our future? How long has living just been the mechanism of being alive?
We ask ourselves these questions, and those of us who pose them are praised-- "how philosophical!" the people say-- but the questions are never answered and the problems they present are never repaired.
It is strange that one symbolic little goldfish can sum up a society over 5 billion strong; and an entire world can be diminished to a glass bowl, a castle, and an ocean view.
Occassionally we can see the greatness of our past and the potential of our future, but it is always engulfed by the instant need-- or want-- of things.

'~*~'