There are people who simply never fail to blow me away. Granted there may be an easy win for folks who are incredibly talented, creative or beautiful but I’m not talking about people like that. I’m referring to folks with absolutely no sense of self awareness.

Morbidly obese women with shirts that say “naughty” or “princess” dragging filthy faced toddlers by the arm.

Old people who smoke.

Individuals whose lives are unequivocally unsatisfying yet make to move to change.

Now those people are tragic blind heroes, People who boldly continue a long pattern of stupidity in the face of a whole world that disputes their very lifestyle. There is no doubt you’ve seen these people, grown men with thin finely braided rat tails. At first blush these folks may appear to be clueless and yes, in a way they are. However the fact of the matter is these people are heroes. They are the Davies to realities Goliath.

Often times when I am graced by the presence of these types my reaction is much the same as most of society.

            “Good god what horrible timeless rock did this person crawl out from under so that I may avoid tripping over it and falling into the time rift?”

            However, there are occasions when I am able to swallow my repulsion and see them for what they are; freedom fighters.

            A few nights ago I was out in front of a club at about one in the morning and one such majestic creature brought his reality colliding with mine. I was sitting on the curb enjoying a smoke and a cup of coffee when said individual walked by. He was sporting the aforementioned rat tail and he was well past drunk. As he made his way past he eyed me and stopped to pose a query.

            “Hey bro, what’s up with you, just drinking coffee?”

            “Yeah well, I’ve got to drive later.”

He started to stagger away and here’s where the magic happened. Once he was about 10 feet away he whirled around and declared,

            “I gotta do drugs later”.

I have no doubt that he did have to do drugs later. He had to do drugs later, tomorrow and every moment for the rest of his life. In his mind I was the fool and perhaps the reality of the situation is that I am.