fundamental.
FUNdaMENTAL.
fundaMENtal.
funDAmental.

so many implications
of having a base
and so badly do i need one
that i use a word
 misuse a word
  abuse a word so often

and how often do we critique
those narrowminded
 FUNdamentalists
but at least (i say)
 they have a base.

"it is good to be openminded,
 but not, perhaps, so much so that one's brains drop out."
a recent reading, paraphrased
and perhaps applicable,
because (alas!) i have tried quite hard
to keep my mind open to all things
and in honest consideration weigh each thing before me.
it is, i am quite sure, the right thing to do,
and yet it leaves you, out of necessity, with so few things to stand upon!

perhaps this is why the old grow stiff and curmudgeonly.
they want to stop this madness of considering first one thing than another,
this flitting approval of the truth to rest,
 like a hyperactive butterfly
  on one viewpoint then the next.
but i feel then more like the hummingbird,
 not flitting, but probing deep into each flower
  and extracting whatever god-drink may be found there.
but do you have any idea how long the hummingbird lives?
its fearful and unsettled pace
can't allow much time for happiness.

and the happiest people i ever saw
were in the poorest place i ever saw
and how do you work this back into
westernism being an ideal
 because
  what is our BASE? our FUNDAMENTalism?
upon what construct do we view our lives
do we seek truth
and self-fulfillment?

we have none, not yet.

is it better to be knowledgeable and wise
or to be delightfully happy with life?
can one have both?

[the answer isn't known]

so desperate children as myself
cheaply toss around such words
in the hope that a base will come
 (of speaking)
and bring contentedness.