The Tugboat Complex

"He said, ‘Remember this: Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat."

-Howard Zinn

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."

-Albert Einstein, New York Post, 28 November 1972

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of ‘real food for real people,’ you’d better live real close to a real good hospital."

-Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men."

-Alice Walker, The Color Purple

"If you think I can tell you what’s going on inside my heart, you know even less about it than you think."

-I Wrote This For You

"I know you don’t want it to matter right now. That’s why it matters the most."

-I Wrote This For You

"But every time I turn the page, I see your god-damn haunting face. It’s in my way, rest assured this will stay the same."

"My heartbeat is always weakening me. I can’t find the strength within me. So if I go don’t say I didn’t see it coming. Sad song, you got me humming right along.Never wanted a part of this but you signed me up first on the list."

"The truth will find its way out. In time I’ll pour it out, until then I’ll keep you inside my head. Take a look at what’s beneath your feet. Flowers that once made you smile have turned to stone now. They’re grinding down your teeth. Walls around your mind can’t keep you safe. Build them up with steel and stone and watch your soul escape. Get through today and know that you are secure.Get a grasp on the fact that this is what you’re here for. You can quake at the thought of it. Shakes you up quite a bit… and all you do is think and thinking gets you nowhere."

"I fear that we’re losing such. This conversation is dull and is nothing to love.Where’s the passion? Diminished, it lays in the past and I’m distracted. It’s taken me this long to grasp."