he said to me, "i feel like it's strange that we forgot the beauty of life.  somehow along the way, the almighty dollar rose to the top of our list of priorities.  i wonder why, but then i realize, oh, well, the food was unobtainable unless one had money.  and food is actually the most important element to sustaining life, after oxygen and water.  so obviously, if you couldn't get what you needed simply because you had no loot, loot became the most important thing in life, only as a means to get what you need to stay alive.  now, what still leaves me stumped is the reason this system was set into motion.  why is money important?  because we accept the system of withholding basic needs.  why do we accept the system?  well, if you don't play along by getting Bs in school, working for the boss man and toiling away month after month, you get locked out of the food supply.  of course, we could all decide to ignore the system and be homeless.  reject the system.  yet while this life of money offers absolutely no reward or relief, neither does the homeless life.  the actual problem is not a problem of creating different social programs.  the problem is a problem with our vision.  we cannot envision a different world where we share and work to help one another, because we are forced to work so hard just to get our hands on the bare necessities.  if you decide to reject the system and show your disapproval by protest, you will be locked out of the grocery store.  you cannot feed yourself long enough to sustain the energy it takes to change people's heart and minds.  how can you envision a new world, and show it to people if the minute you step out of the assembly line, you are cut off from your food." 

"you could always dumpster dive," i said.  he smiled and said, "true, this is true.  and yet the world is in need.  the earth is calling to us.  it is showing it's signs of weakness, saying, please, i need your help, we need to work together, i will provide what you need if you remember how in love we used to be."  he looked off toward the almond trees blossoming white fireworks.  "i love this world."  he said, "i want to reach out and hold it with my loving arms.  here in my arms we can find ourselves again.  we are nature and nature is us and we will see the way.  we will envision a new world.  we will find each other dancing in the cool blue-green moon shadow world.  we will embrace.  the only problem is first to see what the world is.  see the system.  see your approval.  see the inability to get around it.  and a new life will bloom out of the muck.  this is the way of nature.  things are born.  they bloom.  the whither.  decay.  death.  mounds of rotten earth.  out of the mud will rise new life.  new colors.  strange dreams alive in our eyes.  we are the world and the world will find itself through our hearts.  we must see.  we must begin.  let us turn towards the sun and stand singing heart songs sideways tongues flailing.  love, charles. love"  he said this and then they wheeled him away in his white overalls.  as they rounded the corner, i saw him smiling looking at something stuck to the wall of the asylum.