The Things We Want, and Know We Cannot Have

It is easy to sit in judgment of you, knight; you whose love nearly brought down a kingdom. You loved each other, but it could not be. She was not yours. She was your king's. It is easy to sit and say that you should deny yourself, deny her, and carry on. But who has borne your burden? Who has faced that foe and lived? Love is strong as death, but does not death conquer all men? So does love conquer all men? Does it defeat your honor, your duty, your wisdom? It seemed it had defeated yours. But you did struggle, knight. You did battle. You fought to the last when you could fight no more. But is it a wonder you were defeated when you fought an enemy with the strength of death itself?

Just

So that everyone knows (all four of you who read my blog) the Sanctimonia story was written as a composition assignment in which we were to show that vice, when presented as virtue, can be attractive to good men, especially the ambitious ones. In its present form, the story has achieved this goal, in my opinion at least. Feel free to share your thoughts. I didn't really plan out what would happen afterwards, so I don't know whether I will lengthen it or not. It is, for its purpose, finished. But, who knows what the future may hold?
I know you were all just so anxious about that...

Oh, and here you go:

Something Funny.

Think About It...No, Really

One of the things that characterized the so-called Dark Ages was what seemed to be a blind faith in a corrupt church. The people of that time were perfectly willing to believe whatever the pope told them. They were content with not bothering to form their own opinions about matters and not putting forth the effort required to find out the truth. This is why one of the hallmarks of the Renaissance was a resurgence of free thinking: a throwing off of the shackles of a corrupt and oppressive church and thinking for oneself.
It seems that today we need a new Renaissance. Modern man has replaced the church of the Dark Age with the mass media of the Information Age. The unthinking masses blindly accept whatever the media chooses to feed them, not bothering to check the facts or peruse other sources, or even considering that the report is touched by bias. We need a new Renaissance. We need to break the chains of a corrupt and oppressive media and start taking a new interest in the world around us, and stop leting others do our thinking for us.
Forfeiting our right to think and form our own opinions only limits us. What was the consequence of the Dark Age mentality? Overspecialization. If you were a carpenter, you were a carpenter, as your father and probably his father before. If you were a soldier, that is all you were. you didn't bother yourself with the unwarlike things such as books or art. In the Renaissance, however, the idea of the "universal man" came with that era's freedom of thought. A man could, and was encouraged to develop as many skills and talents as he could. Witness Leonardo da Vinci: a great artist, yes, but also a brilliant scientist and inventor.
And what do we find today? The same overspecialization. And not just in a career sense. There are also the many social specialties we are burdened with. If you are a jock, you're a jock, and can hardly be expected to be very intelligent. You hang out with jocks, dress the way they should, and everyone is shocked when someone comes along who defies this social norm. If you are a "drama geek" you dress the part, you act the part, you associate with your fellow actors and listen to the kind of music and like the kind of movies everyone expects you to. Where does the stage end?
Freeing ourselves to think will be freeing ourselves to act and live as we believe we should, not how we think everyone expects us to because of what social caste we occupy. Free your mind.