The Breakfast Club [editor]

Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

And so it goes. Like the Breakfast Club we are all trying to escape the brainwashing that has ensued us much of our lives. It has come from the media and our peers, from our churches, educational systems, and parents - even from ourselves.

If honest with ourselves, we would say that we feel sub normal too many hours in the day. Normal is the goal. Not normal in a common way, but in a sacred, standard way that branches out in more directions than the Tree of Life.

My wife wisely said the other day that the biggest slap in God's face is to try to be like someone else. Salvation conforms us into the Son of God's likeness - what is happening on another level is the redemption of the Image of God within us. Paradoxically it makes us both unique and similar, connecting us and releasing us into life.

The form of religion leaves us empty. Morality for it's own sake is a facade. Lawlessness eventually shows it's colors as unfulfilling and self-centered masturbation. We've mistaken emancipation and defiled ourselves; we've idolized what we adore and stripped it of its reflective glory; we've defined truth rather than being defined by it.

Truth, Beauty, and Freedom are cut from the same cloth. It is after those things we must progress.

The most excellent and sincere thing we can do is be ourselves; it is to learn and to fail, to strive and be still; to see that we are royalty and convicts - that we need something outside ourselves to truly become ourselves. It is to find out what really matters and pursue those things not only in word but in deed. The truth be told, there is only one trunk, but we have been sold that there are only a handful of important thing branching from its center. This is a lie. There are many profane things in this world, but the Tree of Life is lush and fruitful, with a vast expanse not only reaching to the sky, but also with hidden roots that are grounded in the depths.

Don't settle for convenient definitions.

Think-Write-Create.

Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us... In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain... and an athlete... and a basket case... princess... and a criminal. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours,
The Breakfast Club