Iowa

Emotion forms a bond. Love. Hate. Joy. Sadness. They connect us to the world. Our perception forms our reality, and through our senses we are able to pretend we share the same reality as others. In short, through emotion, we feel for a moment that we can touch the soul of someone, or something else. Your emotions seem to cut at you like a thousand flying razors and so you feel the other person must be bleeding as well.

More often than not, this is an illusion.

Whenever I get too wrapped up in my anger, I remember Dar Williams’ Iowa.

For tonight I went running through the screen doors of discretion
For I woke up from a nightmare that I could not stand to see
You were a wandering out on the hills of Iowa
And you were not thinking of me.

I ask myself, how could you do this to me? And then I think its just Iowa. Its not malice. Not hatred. No connection at all. Just Iowa. The nightmare formed by indifference. Indifference is neither hot nor cold. It asks nothing of us. It gives nothing in return.