
I can’t believe I ate a fucking Rueben today. It was amazing. Double on the thousand Island Dressing. Also yesterday I ate a Sauce Boss, which is a spicy Italian Subway Sandwich with all the sauces on it, and I ate The Big New Yorker Pizza from Pizza Hut which has pepperoni on it. Also, I got wings. And yet, I’ll refer to myself as a vegetarian. (I was a vegetarian for a year, but then I incorporated salmon and here we are). Hell, next thing you know I’ll be calling myself straight edge when I’m drinking more than just coffee.
Perhaps all of this newfound information invalidates me. It may make me seem less productive than the greater American population. But in a sense, truth is freedom, and if I am being honest with myself, it is in a way a greater liberty. (remember that now)
And who am I to care so much about people other than myself? Let me rejoice in my own life. And if I’d like to be a sober celibate vegan because the corporate government has instilled in me that it is going to make me live longer, perpetuate lies of romance, and doing well all in the name of Religion and enslavement, then I shall.
Freedom of choice is a very scary concept when we are very unaware to the extent that our rights and our conception reality is being altered or oppressed.
Even now, as I write this, it is prone to be edited, and made damn sure not to be read by a greater public/you until it is thoroughly reviewed and censored.
I am afraid to write this next sentence, because the confession of my thoughts may further affirm deeper fears/desires I may harbor, which can be used against me by anyone “I do not know.” (Cyber hackers, an old roommate, Government Agencies, Academic Institutions, Media Outlets, Bourgeois families).
I feel like I am in an outside prison. I feel like what I do is already known and then determined without much choice on my part. I am not oblivious to extraordinary extent that technology, surveillance, and media influence can infiltrate my inner sanctum and consciousness, not to mention other’s. It is very invasive and unethical. I’m not speaking in theory. I’m speaking from firsthand experience that much of what I find online is targeted to me and builds a very tragic, isolating narrative, and therefore I become very…dilapidated. I’m not only speaking of online interaction either, but that is where it is most evident.
Gaslighting is a term that refers to when a person makes someone question their reality – usually by means of social media.
I write all of this to admit that I know all of this sounds very invalidating of my credibility. And I can admit that maybe I am wrong. Maybe I’m a paranoid schizophrenic (who has never been diagnosed of such atrocities, but just you wait). Maybe I’m wrong and this reality really is just a heartwarming experience where American’s rape people into a false belief systems. They took away the freedom to choose, so I might not be wrong.
As a writer you have to have the courage to write what you believe even if it doesn’t sound right, or even it won’t be understood at the time it is written. You should be able to convey your ideas in a way that can appeal, convey and convince your ideas well. And finally, you should be able to accept that your beliefs may change. It is important to know how and why they change. For better or for worse, and for whom?
I’ve
helped people die
they smile as they say
goodbye
-B.B
Her hair is red
Not orange
She is like my blood
Blue too, in the eyes
Colors are not everything,
but everyone has their true
colors.
-B.B
P.S there was some poem that I was so excited about before bed last night, I thought it was too good to forget. I should and do know by now to write down poems in the middle of the night. I will compromise with a sentiment about me: I am a exceptionally happy person who is severely depressed.
Gosh darn Jesus, it is difficult that after such a wonderful night with long-loved friends and overdue laughter and dancing like a flame that I always go home so melancholy.
Jed was playing tonight. He knows to be humble, but it is so difficult to watch at the same time. He could be so big. If only that was what we didn’t want.
“I saw someone in the room, but I heard someone else.” I couldn’t close my eyes to all the symbols, and questions, and integral egoism. I really am saddened by the idea of never escaping my reality. I’d like to let it go! I want to! Show me how. I really wouldn’t like to be me. But there are good times, and such incredible conclusions occasionally. The best are just the jokes.
I still dance : ) I deserve a cigarette : ( I tried to solve the world’s problems -_- The flowers were called mums tonight.
I want love (an oxymoron). Too little to ask of the world. It’s not all anything. It’s always everything. You can not escape yourself, but you can screw yourself by doing the opposite. About a girl; Tradition sucks. If I’m over here trying to reverse greek mythology, maybe I deserve a call. And maybe she can drive.
Sometimes when life looks back at you in its beautiful moments, all you can think is, “What another great way to end.” And then I jumped in the water naked, by myself.
I tell myself, and I’d be happy to tell others, that if you want to be a successful writer, just keep writing (insert synonym for writing – just keep “swimming”). Just don’t stop what you are doing. I write, here tonight, to say, that I will likely be meeting a self-imposed deadline for my next book. It is titled Ten Zen by Ben.
10/10/23 seems like a better deadline for the project than my preferred date, but, I will say, that some numerical values are a bit more arcane (Ask the Mathletes). But this book, and this deadline, are not what I am truly trying to focus on. Writing it kept me in a state of limbo.
Right before I deleted my Instagram, I posted something that said, “I guess the truth comes out when you are being honest.” And then I disappeared. I live in a world of fear. I fear God, I fear love, I fear my dad, I fear my ex-girlfriend, but most importantly I fear myself. I fear what I have to say. And with that fear, comes the belief that I must hide. I must not show my true colors to the world, because I have fear that I am some bad person who doesn’t deserve to be who I am. I fear it is wrong to be somebody.
(And so, I run, and hide away, for my long intervals of life. I am quiet for a long time. Working silently, quietly. Head down and humble. Then I show up expecting that the world is not to have changed. But let’s hope this is not a blog post embodiment of some guy saying “I’m back.” I’m not really. And well, a part of me never left, but another part of me is gone I suppose. But losing yourself isn’t the point. One point is that it is important to know who you are, and you are more likely to discover this by looking inward than relying on outward expectations from others.)
But my initial point is this, I don’t know why I have so much to hide. I don’t know why I’d be so ashamed with the idea of saying that I wrote another book. Maybe I think it adds value. Maybe I call shame humility. If I have any redeeming quality, it is that I am a generally honest person. “Sometimes too honest.” Welp, yeah maybe I’ve said some dumb thing. Maybe I’ve voiced my opinion about things that aren’t really my business. But I really have to find the strength to say that I am not a bad person, and I can help people with my words.
but I’m not a bad person.
I’d like to be honest and be open about my thoughts. I think that a significant point of progress is that we share ideas. I’m not really banking on my name being the thing that is remembered, but I sure hope my ideas make a difference. It is so much better, as a writer, to have conflict and an inner dialogue, than to get everything done with everyone on time. It’s not bad to do both. I hope I find a way that it doesn’t hurt anyone to speak (you and myself both included), and say something worth exclaiming. And let’s pray we write another book.

Ben Bonkoske is the author of two novels, Spoon in the Road, and Carolina, Colorado, California. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, Ten Zen by Ben, and Eleven Stories for 11:11. He wrote his own major at the University of North Carolina, Asheville focusing on Racial Tension in America. He attended Northeastern, Illinois University where he earned a Masters of Arts in Secondary Education. He lives in Chicago, where he likes to take walks.
B. A, M.A.T.
Bencbon@gmail.com
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