The Best Gift One Can Receive Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Awakening from values placed,
On the emptiness of symbols and images...
Can save a lot of waste of one's appreciation,
For others and their worth as human beings.

People wait until it is too late,
To live their lives from a basic point of view.
Believing the purpose of life is in acquiring things,
To pursue with a flaunting of pretentions.

Today people are teaching their children,
It is okay to take from others.
Then find what they have done,
Disappoints with the results that come.

Today people do not accept,
Their own consequences they face.
Only to place blame and find fault,
With those directions they chose to take.

Awakening from values placed,
On the emptiness of symbols and images...
Can save a lot of waste of one's appreciation,
For others and their worth as human beings.

Awakening before it is too late,
To self examine...
Is not a sign of weakness.
It is the best gift one can receive.

Afterall...ultimately,
Is it what one has that delivers to them happiness?
Or...
Is it the caring of someone shown that is freely given,
And genuinely felt and known...
That validates with an acknowledgement,
What they have been seeking that is regarded as progress.

'I've given you every 'thing' that money can buy.
And you act as if I don't exist.
It is as if...
I don't know who you are,
Anymore.'

~Oh?
And 'who' are you?
Who are 'we'?
WHAT are we?
Machines are being made...
To 'do' what we 'do'.
Other than self destruction...
What other purpose do we serve? ~

'I'll see you later.
When,
Hopefully...
You are in a better mood.'