"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right"

I'm not political. I hate politics, but not politicians. I believe a lot of them get into it with the best of intentions, and then sell their souls in the hopes of doing some good in the future.

The recent Middle East news really bothers me. I feel for Israel. I feel for the Lebanese. I feel for the Palestinians that just want to raise their kids in peace. We need a Centrist revolution. We may not always see eye-to-eye, but we don't kill each other over it.

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Jake's blog got me thinking. Not so much about the poker thing. He's better than me after all, but about how we present ourselves to others. None of us ever show all facets of ourselves to others, even those closest to us. Our friends know things our family doesn't. Our co-workers know different things than our significant others. So who am "I?" "I" am different things to different people, and we all have some strange need to maintain that facade, with all its degrees of truth, in front of those various cliques.

Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on

It's amazing how much the people of our past have an effect on our lives long after they've left it. Ex-husbands, ex-wives, ex-girlfriends, ex-boyfriends. A song, a movie, a restaurant, a joke, reminding you of a time you were deliriously happy or suicidally morose. I had one of those moments today, but I'm kinda thankful for it. We're nothing more than the sum of our experiences anyway, and I'm all about having good anecdotes.

I wanted to see you walking backwards.
To get the sensation of you coming home.
I wanted to see you walking away from me.
Without the sensation you're leaving me alone.

This was a spur o' the moment post. I probably have more, but I should save it for another time. Extra points to those that can tell me the songs and artists in this post.