The Desire

 Being polite- Saying hello to clerks. chatting with baristas at Starbucks and asking people how they are doing seem to be common courtiesies that can easily extended to anyone. Yesa, They are a choice- some people ADAPT this as a constant practice and others cosse to foergo behaving this way.

 I understand that people will say that poverty, rwretched education systems and just not having good mentors and  models explain we some people proudly and most defiantly live an " It's On, In your Face, Intimidating, Harsh, Cold and Provocative/"

 My own mother told me that  being polite, chatty friendly and open " is how the wealthy and  and the spoiled live" we are REAL people we live plain and basic not fancy. My Father used to say only " Republicans and The JEWS" live that way, the rest of us live the way we hafta live.

 My parents were resentfully and proudly poor, They wore it as a militant badge of honor! My sister has adapted this same way of living as well. I just never saw that there was anything to considering that way of living as being any more than mindlessly and soulessly letting your life be controlled and dictated to by the " LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR" yuck.

 I was beaten often for being intelligent and well-spoken. At one point, during my childhood, Our bathtub was in the kitchen and there was no shower available. I was only allowed to change my underwear and socks once a week and punished for not keeping them pristinely clean.

 I've paid a price for living this way but I saw as a maturing person that no decent human being should see living this waty as acceptable. I shed most of that, THANK GOD, and I'm now working through dealing with how that way of being raised affected my emotions, intellect and my spirituality.

 In AA and other allied programs stress that desaire is neccessary to bring about beneficial and lasting change. I believe that a DESIRe for better caused a Bronx teenager to attend college in Frostburg, Maryland! It is now causing me to willing enter into an intense 21 Month period that , I believe, shall bring about a splendid renaissance and metamophis in my life.

 Desire can bring about splendid improvement. People who live in pervasive squalar, who want pevasive squalor for other and who seek the help of others to perserve them in squalor CLEARLY have ZERO! desire to do better and become better.

 How wretchedly and catastrophically pathetic!

 - Johnny -