text: New York traffic flowed, as usual, endless on both foot and on the street. A usual day: for most. The next few seconds would change that for the select few who would view the terror. 3. 2. 1. And splat. A lifeless body slapped across the ground hard enough to bounce after impact with the concrete like a rubber ball. Although there was something peaceful about him regardless of the morphed, disfigured corpse that lay across the pavement, if you can visualize this mess as laying. Despite the chaos it created and the trauma it caused others, the jumper seemed truly happy; he had reached peace, although not in the most desirable way. He chose door B. Some try to reach this happiness through other means: through door A. To fill their lifeless existence with money, their meaningless abodes with furniture, their void driveways with fancy cars. Well our victim decided the best way to reach happiness wasn’t by filling a house with furniture, a bank account with cash, or a driveway with cars, no the best way for him was to fill the sidewalk with his teeth. He realized that the only way to end the miserable existence of this long walk we take called life was to take the plunge early. His portal to the next life was to roof of an executive office building; more specifically, where our victim worked. That takes us back some time, where everything began. At first, Tom was taking the regular walk through life. He, like all Americans, went through life doing as society considers, “the norm.” He did well in school and was strong-armed into college. He stuck it out and got a degree, that piece of paper considered essential to make it through door A. And he went out and he got a miserable job. He walked in every day and walked out. Each day worse than the last. And that’s the endless loop he lived; with each day worse than it’s predecessor, that means he always woke up to the worst day of his life. That’s his struggle, the daily grind. And I can’t argue that he wasn’t making his way to door A. He saved up enough to fill his apartment with shitty IKEA furniture, he was able to accrue some money in a bank account, and he got to fill his parking space with a decent car. Although none of these filled the void. He was able to see past the false happiness that we all experience. The image that capitalism creates in our mind, the perfect American society. Life in the suburbs with a subservient wife and the kids, living like the family on Leave it to Beaver. But Tom saw past it all, he saw what life was. Feeding the money machine that humans created, doing the hard work so life for those on the top could be filled with even better cars, more furniture, and the largest of all bank accounts. Now Tom’s position is one of curiosity: is it better to live a life blindly and ignorant, or to truly see what is happening behind the curtains? Well that has no definite answer. Humans strive for answers and Tom had them, so clearly he was in the better position, right? But Tom was the one limp on the ground, not the door A chasers so they live a better existence, right? Well there is no definite answer, while answers are what the human mind pursues and cannot live without; in the real world situation ignorance is bliss.