Utopia and Dystopia By: Ben Griffith 12/10/15

It’s a Perfect Day By: Ben Griffith

A day in a faultless life starts before sunrise in order to live the day to it’s the fullest,

I’d wake up not in the suburbia of Livonia,

but in somewhere removed from the hustle and bustle.

I imagine going for a morning run with some of my Cross Country teammates,

greeting and being greeted by people driving by,

real friendship and compassion in the air.

Mid-morning I’d go to brunch in a cozy diner,

reuniting with some of my lost friends of the past,

we catch up and talk like nothing had happened, like no time has passed.

In this utopia of mine time moves slower, I’m able to savor each moment,

until I’m ready to move forward once again.

Around noon I appear at a new-unexplored park with many miles of trails,

each lap I’d complete would bring another special person to me,

another special collection of moments to be shared.

At three o’clock I’d next meet up with in a nature Orchestra Concert Shell,

and spend time with my lovable-nerdy-band friends,

we’d make music without a care in the world,

even through our mistakes and mishaps we’d appreciate and cherish our time together.

Next dinner would take me to sample all my favorite foods,

with a bottomless stomach I would savor every bite.

Of course not without company though, in a thanksgiving style table I would share in

a comrade filled dinner and all my friend groups would get along harmoniously.

Pure joy to me would be seeing the people I love living in the moment, living for today.

Later with a bonfire crackling in the background,

I sit in the silence of the wilderness reflecting on my wonderful day,

soaking up the last moments I have before I start the next perfect day to come.

Hell is a Relative Paradise By: Ben Griffith

The other day I was watching this TV show called Forensic Files and it was based on true life crime events. In Texas City, Texas a man was convicted of six counts of sexual assault back in 2007. I have seen and heard many stories like this on TV but what stuck with me was the fact that the man who was convicted only committed his crimes with a witness in attendance during the attack. The women he assaulted every time had a boyfriend or husband present, he would take his gun and threaten the life of the men while assaulting the women. To me this is the worst thing you could ever experience. The men in this situation sat helplessly as the women the loved were violated and couldn’t do anything about it. A dystopian society in my eyes would be a place where I had to watch people I love suffer. It may not be in the same way this real life story happened but this is how my worst nightmare would transpire. The people I love, one by one by one, getting tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered, while I stand at the sideline helpless, tied down, with no way to escape the mental angst being brought on. No option to sleep through anything, no passing out, no possibility of suicide to terminate the never ending terror. Tearing apart my brain to for eternity similar to the idea of burning in Hell, but the difference here is that, this is a never ending life. Hell would seem like paradise after experiencing this.