I've been locked out
I've been locked in
but I always seem to come back again
when you're in that room
what do you do?
I know that I will have you in the end

And the clouds
they're crying on you
and the birds are offering up their tunes
in a shack as remote as a mansion
you escape into a place where nothing moves
...

Also, a rather good song by Crowded House about a guy who, basically, isn't taking being broken up very well. It's recorded on their album Together Alone, and also the soundtrack to the film Reality Bites.

WHERE THE HELL ARE MY KEYS?

We as humans are scared. We're scared that someone, anyone is going to take something valuable from us. Why? Because chances are, there was at least one occasion that we took something of importance from someone else.

What is our anitdote for this? LOCKS! On everything! Cars, houses, luggage. And not just key-in-hole locks, no, we have combinations, serial locks, and some of that miles and miles of code proves to be none other than just a series of locks. We have armored cars with series of locks. We keep dangerous people behind series of locks, if we can catch them first, that is. We lock our money away, our heirlooms, our antiques, our computers. Sometimes we lock our pets away. Even better, sometimes we have both our children and our parents behind our locks at the same time!

Am I the only one this seems ludicrous to? Granted I grew up in the boonies where I still refuse to lock any of my doors. My wallet sits in my front seat, and I KNOW it'll be there when I get back. Sure, I'm stupid.....but I know there are places where I can get away with this behavior. Behavior....HMPH! I outta be able to get away with this damn near anywhere, but that is not the case.

My mother on the other hand....locks everything. She is extrememly protective of her valuables and her house. It's thanks to this compulsive behavior that I was locked out, YET AGAIN, last night while taking a break from noding and standing out having a smoke. Yes, I slept in my car last night. Why? Because it was the only thing UNLOCKED!

And we're so embarassed when we lock ourselves out of anything, aren't we? Why should we be? I'm amazed we keep up with as many damn locks and other devices to keep people out. I'm surprised we get in as often as we do! Does this not slow us down a bit?

Don't get me started onpasswords, that really is a whole other can of worms. That's part of the reason why I started out with so many accounts on this damn thing alone.

Think of everytime you've been locked out of something or somewhere. I've been locked out of my car enough times, that I didn't get a spare key made, no I just rarely lock it. My house? My brother leaves the back door wide open so the dog (Did I mention he's a really big snarly dog?) can come and go as he pleases. I used to get locked out of my old apartment, but that's because my roommate was as paranoid as my mom, and a spare key was pretty much out of the question.

One time right before a big road trip, I locked my keys in the trunk, just by shutting the lid. How's that? I didn't ask for my trunk to automatically lock everytime I shut it, could I not have just closed it? No. So I had to get someone to come unlock something so I could get the thing that unlocked everything else. I was hopping mad.

And when I do lock myself out, I'm too proud to wake anyone up, I'd rather sit there in the cold and wait for morning. How weak is the excuse, "I left them in the other side of the door"?

The price of safety? That's why I have a wad of steel jangling in my pocket and a notebook full of numbers and letters? This is all because I took that handful of candy in the convenience store when I was eight, right?

I am someone who never
made it to the forest,
turned back by winter's grit,
headed off by the river's
cold pebbles of glass.

Tremendous, angry, swelling
and shattering the ice:
a mote before my destiny,
a gate of rock.

I know that far off,
in the forest, gold dapples
dance, in and out of leaves,
to the happy song of birds.

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