Sunshiyn — Artwork and blog of Megan Zupan

Sitting on a springy mattress. Discomfort inadequatley masked by a $20 foam mattress pad. I stare out the window- beyond the glistening spiderweb, past the ripped screen. I breathe in the breeze of a summer rainstorm in February. My eyes land upon two Canada geese circling high above the tin trailer, the 4-wheeler, the cinderblock fence across the rutted road. Life is a strange trip. I think of freedom- or at least what it has come to symbolize...I don't believe it is anything that may ever be defined well enough to give a true sense of its impossible meaning. People believe that upturning institutions or "sticking it to the man" are adequate ways of demonstrating the maneuverability, the self-preservation of the human mind. I disagree. I find that organized uproars, so to speak, are often developed into entities that are the exact opposite of the morals and hopes of which they were founded upon. Yes, the idea behind a union, any declared "revolution" really, is philanthropically noble; however, once such ideas gain power from agreeance-and, therefore, compliance, they become an organization. It is no longer about the fabled "little man" fighting for his individualistic rights, but rather- he is now forced to fight for the strength of the union that was initially intended to preserve his. Unions, for the most part, are commercialized attempts to maintain a dignity that no person may ever possess so long as they allow themselves to be run down by causes they do not believe in and, later, controlled by those which they mistakenly believe to be concerned with their best interests. Revolutions don't seem to be about the individual at all, but rather the institution itself, which gains empowerment through the combined misconceptions of those entrapped by its deceptive allurement.
Maybe freedom is happiness. Though it seems that happiness will forever be associated with possession. The true circle of life? One individual has something that deters another from attaining what they want for the time being- so the latter gathers up people with similar viewpoints to their own, and they band together to achieve more wholesome lives. This is fine, but when better isn't good enough, the cycle starts anew. Our natures will forever contradict our innermost desires.