Stop, collaborate and listen

I stepped outside, and walked to the picnic tables to have a smoke. The crest of the sun was still peeking over the hills of California, causing the sky to turn a hundred different shades of pink, orange, and red. Clouds shaped like Turtles, Dragons, Japan, and whatever else my imagination could muster roll lazily in the multi-colored void.  A cool breeze floated in the air, and reminded me of being at sea. I looked up through the palms at the gulls gliding down from nowhere to take up their perches for the night.  I closed my eyes and thought of home. I opened them to find something that I hadn't noticed before. The field that I was standing in was surrounded by a fence built with excessively large metal bars, which were pointed at the top. It’s hard to tell whether they were intended to keep me in or others out. In any case, they were doing a good job of both, not that I was trying to get out, and from what I could tell no one was trying to get in.  I looked past the fence to the street on the other side. The cars were backed up around the corner, and all the people seemed very displeased to be stuck in this particular part of the world for any longer than they had to be. None of them seemed to realize the beauty that was right in front of them. I gazed past all of them to the buildings immediately beyond. All I could see were large, gray boxes next to other large, gray boxes, some of them slightly larger, and slightly grayer than the others. None of them seemed to have any creativity in their design past whatever function they were built for.  Beyond that were the war ships in the harbor, big gray boats, built to destroy other big gray boats. Combined the firepower on those ships could destroy the planet a hundred times over. I stopped and thought about how much sense that makes. It finally dawned on me what I was truly looking at; prisons inside of prisons, inside of more prisons. I realized that all of these people are so institutionalized that they can't even look up at an amazing sunset, and even get a little taste of freedom. "Why would we do this to ourselves" I thought. All I could come up with is that we are scared; we’re scared of the unknown, so we lock ourselves in cages so we don't have to experience it anymore. We lock ourselves inside of countries, and cities, cars, jobs, television, and even other people, so we don't have to feel lost anymore. It came across my mind that I had done the same as everyone else, as soon as I graduated High School I signed my life away to the Navy. But that's not why I did it. No, what I was looking for was freedom, but all that I found was the fact that I was free before. Restlessness griped me like it always did. The sun finally submerged itself under the hills, and the stars were unveiled on to the world. The moon hung full and heavy in the night sky, and its face appeared to be screaming something down to earth. Maybe it’s telling us the secret of life, but we’re just too wrapped up in ourselves to hear it.  So I lay back on the table, and looked up into space, leaving all my earthly cages behind me in search of something more. Until I heard my phone ring, and saw that it was one of the other people I know that can see the world for what it is.
"Hello," I said, "what's up."
"Nothing," she said, "Just looking at the stars."
I smiled, god I loved that girl.