I work 9-5. I work hard, like you.

I sit down at my desk. Four grey walls. I log into a labyrinth of software applications, and I put my headset on. I scour search engines. My browser is cluttered with tabs. I am in perpetual communication. In another window, I have another browser running. Another plethora of tabs. Email, Social media, business websites, etc. To my left, my tablet is plugged in, leaning against some books displaying my calendar. To my right, my smartphone is plugged in piping upbeat music into my skull through green ear buds featuring bass so rich, it’s like dark chocolate for my ears.

When my brain starts to go whack from work, I read up on some hilarious movie reviews over at “Thoughts We Might Have Had.”  I might do some writing. . .  I’ll watch a few youtube clips. I scroll through endless newsfeeds from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. I’ll sort out some of that pesky spam in my Gmail inbox. Read some conservative rant about guns, read some liberal rant about education.

Then I go back to work. Equipped with coffee, and a new Pandora station, I propel myself through another couple of hours. I get a text from my wife. I check a voicemail from my dad. I block that meme-crazy “friend” who just can’t stop. I like a goofy photo of a good friend.

I go home. I wander the lands of Skyrim while my wife makes dinner. We watch Frasier on Netflix while we eat.

None of these things are bad. But sometimes, I wonder how my mind might blossom if I just wandered alone in the wilderness for a while.

That’s right, I want a cave. A dark cave in the middle of the woods by a lake. A place to let my beard grow long, and I can howl at the moon. By candlelight, I will use sharp pieces of granite to etch my stories into the stone of the earth.

~j.d.schofield