I Would Be a Genius

“I saw my magnificent aesthetic monument wilting and fading all about me, dissolving away, losing what little substance it had for not having been cultivated. For that spirit-world I sought had to be exercised and though drink offered me a certain freedom, a certain easy unity with that world, my sober cold productive hours were fully occupied now by my job! And though the world told me over and over and over again that I had to work, had to support myself, bitterly I wondered at the quality of life this demand returned to me if its truest recompense was to rob me of my life? For work did nothing more for me than merely grant the brute necessities of life. And by complying with this fundamental demand I received nothing in return: not life nor adventure nor even any respect much less any form of basic consideration or kindness or rewards at that office.” Barry Miles