This weekend I was dragged to the bars that circle my university like vultures do with a fresh carcass.

I sat at a table with a few new friends who made idle chatter, nursing my Ameretto Stone Sour (I'm quite the lush you see), as I watched the rest of the constituents of humanity file in to indulge in what is called "Happy Hour".

I watched as a myriad of individuals filed in, each receiving a stamp for their cover charge.

Stamp

Stamp

Stamp

Each and every single one of them ultimately looking for something, myself included. "What is it each of us here is looking for?" I asked myself, as I took another sip from my glass. Gray cigarette smoke filtering past my vision toward the ceiling from, what I imagine, was a dozen or so cigarettes lit in symphony.

And then it hit me as quickly and efficiently as any other blunt object would.

Escape.

We were, we are, all looking for an escape. Weither it is through self-destruction, commitment to a cause/ideal, or simply drowning sorrows/confusion/complex thoughts with a few simple swigs of flavored poison.

I really found it kind of humerous, at the time, when I thought about it. Because religion is, in essence, the same thing.

Cut out the alcohol, the cigarette smoke, the easy women (well, that all depends on what kind of religion one partakes in...), the happy hour, and of course, the limited mediums of free will.

Church, or religion to be more accurate, is a method of escape. A way to give ourselves over so that we do not have to completely deal with reality, to deal with our lives. Our very real, fragile, and tangible lives.

I'm not saying that people should stop going to church and start going to bars. I'm not saying that people should stop going to bars and start going to church/temple, whatever.

What I am saying is that the purpose behind all of these methods of escape are not healthy for us, especially if they get in the way of *who* we are.

Institutions in general tend to be very unhealthy when given the use of unchecked power over time. Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Witch hunts...So many people murdered just so that some of us could escape from the responsibilities of life. Of making our own decisions.

So many people murdered to purge free will, and self-purpose.

Institutions can't save the world. They merely change it for their own benefit. So instead of being stamped by one, create your own purpose...so that maybe someday people can live in a world where they won't have to escape from reality to survive in it.