It's dark outside and I'm looking out the passenger window in the car I'm in. I'm looking into all the windows of the homes that we are passing by. The lights are on inside and the curtains are not drawn shut in most of the homes. It's like these people want you to see into their world. It's like a big fishbowl where I can knock on the glass and they will look alert for a moment and then forget that I even existed. They just keep going on with their lives and don't realize that so much is going on around them. They just swim around and do the routine things. Eat their food. Dwell at the bottom. Eat each other when they need to.

The glowing boxes that shoot out images are ever so present and the pictures are hung up on the walls in these homes. Countless artifacts are in these habitats. Treasures that aren't appreciated until they are actually gone.

I wonder as I pass by all these homes. Do they have the same problems as I do? Do they have as much fun as I do? What do these people do? Are they living a better life?

Then I remember the philosophy of not comparing yourself to anyone.

I see the piranha coming after many of these fish and I wince because I wish they would see it coming too. Then I realize that this is the way things are sometimes. These are the cards that are given to you.

Must be the side effects. Don't fight the buzz and just go along with it. Must be the side effects.