Step by step
Heart to heart
Left, right, left
We all fall down
Like toy soldiers 

Bit by bit
Torn apart
We never win
But the battle wages on
For toy soldiers
– Martika – “Toy Soldiers”

I am not a toy soldier.

It’s ranting time. If you’ve been a consistent reader of Newsletter 22, you know I speak from the soul and the heart. Sometimes things cross my mind that I can’t disregard. Sometimes I feel some people are greedy and they are the very ones leading the blind. When I look at certain corporate level companies and fashion designers and how people cherish them, I can’t help but take into account how folks mindlessly purchase products. Sure, we all could use a computer and phones, that’s fine. I also can’t say, “Hey stop using your money like that.” Not my place. Nor would I ever feel the real need to. It’s not so much about that. I just feel…The overly wealthy (1% or 0.0001%) are telling the poor and middle-class to donate their money while they blow theirs on anything they want every day. We can barely feed ourselves half the time. It’s all just too much for me. The more I’ve meditated the less prone to reading up on the news I’ve been. I shut a lot of things out in a simple realization that I can’t save the world. The only changes I can truly make are personal and immediate – those directly in my life. I think too much…It’s hereditary. My mother swears I get it from my grandfather and I can’t even say she’s wrong. Jasemine and I are cut from the same cloth and are very passionate people. We speak our minds. It’s what we do. So some of the things I think of are…

“We live in a nation that is called free, yet we’re imprisoned in the toxicities of greed, intolerance, and hatred.”

I figured out long ago this nation I live within builds and breeds toy soldiers. A mass of people that cannot think for themselves, is intentionally undereducated, and molded for a miserable life based on textbooks filled with lies. We live in a nation that is called free, yet we’re imprisoned in the toxicities of greed, intolerance, and hatred. That is probably something I already knew. I say this because growing up I never felt right about saying the pledge of allegiance. Half the time I put my hand to my heart and thought of God and family above all else. I specifically recall eventually mouthing the words, and no longer saying them. My allegiance has always been with the spiritual (God and the universe) and not in most people. Why would I pledge for people killing our brothers and sisters? These people are an extension to ourselves. Why would I pledge for death and murder when I only want for love? Why would I pledge for a family to lose those they can’t live without? I am not an “ends justify the means” type of woman. Getting along is not rocket science, but a large percentage of the world has yet to work out how to do it.

“I am not blind to the government’s will to enslave us with student loans, house notes, car notes, and insurances on things that rarely happen.”

I also think about finances. I am not blind to the government’s will to enslave us with student loans, house notes, car notes, and insurances on things that rarely happen. Recently I (re)discovered journalism is at the core of who I am. It is the reason why when I fight for things in any way I have to know every little thing about it. That’s why it wasn’t difficult to come to terms with a recent idea. We can’t save the world. It’s too far gone. However, we can save the people around us if they want to be saved. This didn’t take me x amount of years to figure out, it took about 4 to realize I already knew it. I’m an optimist so my threshold for hope is nearly endless until I investigate and exhaust every potential avenue to “cure” something.

Toy Soldier Brief: We make the best of our circumstances. We don’t fuel the fire, but defuse it where we can. I believe that every heart has good and bad in it, but it’s much healthier for the heart, soul, and mind to be at ease. When faced with hard truths, try to conquer them and make your truth more positive. Don’t let loans burden you. Don’t let debt burden you. When we’re dead and gone they’re not a problem, so why let them be one while we’re here. Live your life. Don’t judge others for how they live theirs either.

Love Always,
Veronica ✌❤