The rain hasn’t stopped since the machines took control. We didn’t know. They were supposed to help. They were supposed to improve our lives, make the world a better place. Little did we know we would be handing over control. It was gradual at first. We created them as little devises for entertaining ourselves. Music, communication, the world wide web all together, instantly whenever and wherever we went as long as we paid their fees, but it was worth it. For a time they did help. Our lives were a bit easier.

 It was great! Truly, that time of the world was still enjoyable and fun. We were still in control. We still made the decision to put the machines down; to go outside, to talk face to face instead time showing our faces to each other over machines. To go outside and touch the grass and get scrapes from falling, so that we can learn to pick ourselves up. We were still free from them.

Slowly they learned of our habits, our personalities, what made us tick, out weaknesses. They learned how to manipulate us. How to intrigue us with more so that we would spend more. The machines learned from the best. We programed them, we taught them how to monitor us, how to trick us into giving in to our simplest desires. The men at the top, the great inventors we called them. Oh, how they greatly manipulated us, played us. All for a little extra cash. And now we are left with nothing.

               They used the machines to keep the population under check, to buy buy buy whatever they told us to buy. “Make your lives easier!” they said, “Fit in with everyone else,” we told ourselves. We spent all of our money so we could be like everyone else and give into our deepest insecurities and fears. They invented new ways to sell us safety and security. It used to be about what we needed in life to survive, not what we wanted to make ourselves feel good for a second, until the moment of happiness flew away from our minds leaving us desperate for another hit. Another impulsive reason to buy their overpriced stuff. Studd that will only end in a landfill once we are done with it. Families would discourse and debate whether or not they even needed to spend the extra money on the latest invention. Now we scourge on another over whether or not they have the latest technology. To abandon any and all beliefs we held firm just for a piece of metal. They trapped us, manipulated us so that we would give them more money, so much money that they cannot even spend it all if they had a hundred lifetimes. First, they enslaved the population, but as time went on, they too succumbed to the machines. Now we are all lost. We enslaved ourselves.

We’re all trapped. We think we’re free: free to decide how we get to work, how we spend our money that they give us, free to spend our “free time” that they reward us. Free to choose which brand with which we align ourselves, which style of charger we choose to hook up to the internet, how we decorate our mini avatars on the mini devices. Now none of us are free, for we are all burdened to the constant need to be plugged in.  We used to fight for freedom, put our lives on the line, even die so that someone else could enjoy that freedom. Now we fight each other for the latest gadget they throw at us. We bite and claw at each other’s throats for the scraps that are given to us. They sat upon their thrones that we built with our hard work and money. Only for them to “reward” us with a little extra only demand it back for a special trinket that they said was essential to a happy life.

We had happy lives. Life was good, the world was good! Now it has come to a loop. A constant circle of throwing around money. We work to “earn” money only for us to give it back to them so that we may “live happy lives” like they tell us to do. But we’re not happy. “Theres a drug for that!” great, another thing for me to buy to chase that one high, that one hit from a moment of happiness. Over and over again.

 We used to worship the earth as a mother, now we worship these titans of industry and their machines. The sun may shine on what remains of this good, green earth. Too bad no one is around to see it. It’s been raining in my head ever since they handed me that damn phone.


But no more. I’m leaving. I am writing this to anyone that wishes to join me. They put us here. Well now it is time to leave. All we have to do is put the phone down and walk outside; crazy I know, but it is possible to leave it all behind and pick ourselves up once again. I have to go before I completely lose what remains of my fragile sanity. I do not know what is out there, what remains of the good world we once resided and lived, thrived. Whatever is out there, it cannot be worse than living in the endless rain.

I am going to free myself from this constant depression, this circus they call life. We had lives, I remember in the before time. I remember the sun, the soft grass and the kiss of a breeze off the lake, the cool dirt between my toes. That was happiness. That is what I am after.

Come find me. I know there are others that wish to be truly free once again. I cannot be the only one that wishes to break away from this ordeal, this torture, this ridiculous life of greed and hatred. We can begin again. Even if I am the first, I have hope for humanity. We put ourselves here, but we can walk away from it all.

Follow the music on the wind. Follow the river until it runs clean of chemicals. Follow the mountains until they rise about the sky. Most importantly, follow your gut. Follow yourself to the truth. Follow the sun until you can feel the heat upon your face, free of the rain.