it's all so thin, yeah? 

surface tension can seem like this constant, immutable force.

the phrase is typically applied to water, but something as fragile as a bubble also benefits from--is impossible without--its requisite surface tension. 

surface tension represents a precise interplay of elemental factors...perfectly balanced, as nothing can remain. 

we all learned plenty about how delicate these constructs can be a few years back. 

how such wan, ethereal barriers can exist between states of being. between solid and liquid. between war and peace. between civilization and...the alternative. 

like I learned back in Sociology 101, things don't HAVE to be any particular way. 

...and so sitting at home in the dark last night, ears vigilant for the faintest whispers of normalcy, I had ample opportunity to consider the concept of surface tension, of binding, conditional energy. 

okay let's be real careful with this entry: “breaking the ice," right? 

the line between strangers and friends is pretty much the opening one. 

in the time it takes to establish that initial connection, the same person you wouldn't have known from Adam just the day before may now be riding with you to wherever your final destination may be. 

life's a trip, que no? 

lot of people waste a lot of space looking to find their vision of paradise, think they can build the castle of their dreams with the right color sand. 

in the end it's just sand...what can you possibly build on sand, which does a good imitation of a solid or liquid depending on how it feels? 

is it even a surface? 

we pretend for our own sanity that we have any idea what the next day holds, but the only things we can predict are the things that always happen anyway.

nobody really expects the ground to shift beneath their feet on an idle Tuesday.

...but stick around long enough under the right conditions and a seismic event is as inevitable as sunshine. 

the rules often bend easy under stress.

pressure builds until it is released, and asphalt cracks like glass. 

towering edifices crumble to ash; the divine right of kings. 

borders and boundaries are redrawn with permanent markers. 

maybe the surface is always thinner than we think. 

the tension, the energy that defines the construct, is unyielding...until all of a sudden it ain't.

maybe what happens then is up to us. 

all power to The People. 

--Flor!