Open Letter to Charles Bukowski (Dinosauria, We)

This may seem petty, but of the whole poem only one part bothered me: “The fingers reach toward an unresponsive god.” From this I am understanding that you’re either atheist, or just don’t think god will respond in this particular situation where there is no optimism in the world. Hopefully the second reason, but either way I don’t agree. It may be because I am religious or just maybe because I am Muslim, but I don’t think god would just ignore innocent people thrown in the mist of chaos. If He did, it would most likely be because his creations wandered from the straight path and have forgotten about the truth, to the point where He allowed them to leave His guidance. For me, in Islam, it is described that god gives direction in the human heart, like a light. And when you no longer seek the light, He takes it away from you leaving you in darkness drawn from the correct path where you cannot find your way again. This is also the reason why you will see many Muslims try not to convince people of the principles of Islam, because if the person isn’t asking sincerely (which they usually aren’t), they’ll just try to defy what you’re saying; but most of the time this comes off as us Muslims having blind faith where we believe whatever we’re told if we’re not willing to explain. The rest of the poem I believe is quite accurate. Knowing human nature, we will eventually out-greed ourselves to dirt. And the sad thing is, it’s not most of society who is going to drive us to this point; but it will be most of society that is affected. We have been trained for generations to be prepared for the future; and generally we are the perfect cattle. All of us are distracted to some point, with our sanity/brain/compassion being numbed to a efficient degree. We become immersed in things that we think are important or interesting, but really have no substance. For instance, Politics; they are just another way to throw away time (although not seemingly), with ephemeral events. Honestly most political affairs can be equated with celebrity affairs. For most of us, if we're shook back to actuality we want to turn it away, but if we’re thrown into it will perform the unimaginable. So , I thank you Bukowski for making this eye-opening poem, and shaking us back to reality; even if only for 3 minutes.

Father and Son

Looking at the topic “Father and Son,” I was instantly sparked to write about family relations; so I thought of writing about daughter and father since it’s something could I relate to more (being that I am a daddy’s girl). But rather, The Road won't allow this type of drift from the main theme, being that the perspective in the novel is too narrow to still someway connect it to other subjects and be able to support my point with the book: therefore I write only of “Father and Son”.
To me a father and son are like yin and yang…or should I say play into yin yang. They only complete one side, where the child is the bigger portion, and the father the smaller. The other side would probably be the mother/mother figure; and I don’t believe the region (lighter or darker) of the circle they inhabit matters as long as it is complete. And although they only make up half, without each other they would be lost or insignificant. The situation I am about to examine only looks upon two possibilities, so I don’t deny other menial details could change the scenario.
Say they were the yin half, (the dark half with the white dot in the middle…and again the father being that dot). The boy without that light/guidance his father gives in the book, would be engulfed in darkness to the point of death. This also works vice-versa for the father. I don’t know if you have seen the Avatar Airbender episode where yin is taken from the pond, and only yang is left. Yang becomes overdrawn & outraged with the evil that surrounds it (because it is pure) …possesses Ang… and is taken to the point of destruction. The father without the boy, no matter how big of a threat carrying a child along in this apocalyptic world is to his life, wouldn’t survive without him.
Now say they were the yang half, (the boy is always the bigger portion, so the father is the dark circle). The same concept applies here. The boy is the fathers guiding light from death, and the father is the boys way of survival. And although the other half of the symbol is still at lost in this, being half way whole is better than being at chaos as the rest of the world.