"The scars? Well that is the saddest, funny story anyone's ever heard. It all starts with a foolish young man who dared to refuse to participate in a corrupt and evil system. Consumer capitalism rots the soul and centers one's perspective on selfish desires of comfort. Taking on the most terrible and spiritually destructive force in all the world is something you only do if you can take the toll of losing everything.

"I had lost so much and still endured. I opted out on all participation in consumer culture and corporate capitalism that I could and still survive. It was a civil disobedience. I would not play their reindeer games. When I lost my home I found sanctuary where I could. When my family turned their backs on me, I made my own way. When my child shunned me because she saw me as a pariah, I shed a tear and vowed to fight harder against the system that had turned her against me. Taking on the most terrible and spiritually destructive force in all the world is something you only do if you can take the toll of losing everything. I thought I could take it.

"I let someone get close. She was wonderful. Different from everything I knew. She was both caring and sweet. She was also an unapologetic consumer. She knew my feelings and my stand but we both conceded to except each other's life style as just part of the person that made the other one happy.

"I was doing temp work at a carnival, running the fun house. This was when she decided to tell me that, I could never provide the life she wanted. Did I mention this carnival was going on the parking lot of a big box chain store. Irony, I know, right.

"I laughed, from the moment I hung up with her. I could hold it in some times for hours but anytime I tried to relax or sleep or rest the laughter just came. You lose enough sleep and everything becomes clear. If the world was playing for keeps then I needed to get in the game for real. The time for peaceful non-participation was over. The society and its greed had burned away everything I had cared about; now the world had to burn.

"The scars on my face? I really can't remember how I got them. But the scars that matter; those I remember well. The girl lives. She lives to see what she unleashed. She lives to see the ultimate irony play out for her. She lives to discover that when you sacrifice happiness for security you sacrifice everything. You can never be happy having lost what was true and you can be never be secure with someone who can't make you truly happy.

"Enough questions doctor. Time to get you in the ground before you start to really smell."