Pieces of Me

"Smile," they say. "You look beautiful. Your smile is beautiful." So I smile. There is nothing wrong with smiling. It's just there are days where I know I just want to be as is.  I am aware of the effects, positive effects I have on those when I do smile, by no means do I not want to smile; it's just when my heart and/or mind is feeling heavy about things in my life, it's just hard to smile at times.  It's not me trying to be negative or anything, I'm a human being with a lot going on. Just recently I was approached by individuals who never met me before but asked if I ever smile, I do just not that much these days.  I'm just trying to still wrap my head around some things and sort through a lot of my own emotions and thoughts at the moment.  The silence has been good for me, but based on my gut feelings it's gonna take some serious long hard time before I can come to terms with quite a few things.  I'm struggling and trying to

Early this morning, as with any other morning, I check the news online.  I've been reading dozens of articles on monetary funds, social issues and more.  Out of all of those, income inequality seems to bug me. I've heard and read pieces from both sides, including those in the middle.  Some feel like it is an attack on the 1% and others seem to have other reasonings behind it.  However, I don't necessarily see it as an attack, I see it as a reflection of policies that have given the rich more than enough to blind them from seeing the real results that are affecting the average American Citizen.  I read an article that noted how today's citizens are now referred to as "taxpayers" rather than citizens.  Then I thought about it and said to myself, "It seems that the current reality is we have become less than "citizens" and reduced to "taxpayers" as if our money defines who and what we are.  But money shouldn't define who individuals