You know how when you watch a show for a bit, you begin to feel a part of that world? Like those are your friends? You buy into the make-believe; you think, "Yeah, this apartment in Seinfeld could very well exist."

My place would be Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Its edges are not as clean and concise as its older sibling, TNG. The setting is the transport hub across the stars. There's an element of adventure and wonder that 90s TV could never capture. Maybe the best shows have an element of that, that something special is right on the edge of tomorrow...

...but, it's NOT real. Just a shared longing in the imaginations of a roomful of lonely writers...a lingering reminder of seasons bygone...

...what I find disheartening is reality. There is nothing new. On those TV shows, no one ever said,

Nope, you're not gonna make it. That plan you've been working on for a long time—yeah, that's not gonna happen. You're gonna fail.

...and perhaps what I find the most endearing about those television stories is how through the adversity and complexity, they supported one another—they encouraged each other...

...but, here in the real world of scarcity, we just tear one another down, pulling each other down from climbing out of the mud. There is no ascension...

...and Death lies in wait.

So much of life is meaningless. I look out across the morning traffic in the pre-dawn hours...