I didn't ask to be thinking about religion, or Christ, or morals, or attitudes, or philosophies, or democrats, or republicans, or left, or right. I didn't ask to have to make an opinion on gay marriage, to discuss Supreme Court decisions, to look at the land where I was born and connect it to the concept of nationhood.

I didn't ask to think in terms of careers, and marriages, IRAs and college tuitions. I didn't ask to have to testify on the nuances of Indie Rock or Progressive Rock, and to then care about it afterward.

Other forces have foisted all these concepts, or memes, into my head. I woke one day, and there was a dictionary full of issues that I was to then discuss with vigor, where my opinion or lack thereof, or my interest, or lack thereof, would cause me hope and fear, anxiety and optimism, and potentially forge or divide relationships with humans.

Where are the real humans and real emotions that aren't slaves to concepts? I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of memes that I did not ask to germinate in my mind. I open my mouth and out pours these ideas that are fighting not on my behalf but on the behalf of themselves, using the battleground of group consciousness as a place to persist and grow.