Here kitty, kitty
While checking out at the grocery store last night, a small plump elderly woman with steel gray hair, a rolling shopping bag, and a very worried look on her face came hurrying into the store through the exit door. Talking to the air in general and no one in particular in a voice too soft to carry far, she asked if anyone had seen her knitting.
"Has anyone found my knitting in the store? I've lost my knitting"
She walked over to the checkout counter. "Is that my knitting? I've lost my knitting. Is that it? Is that it? Is that my knitting?"
She looked through all the empty bags stacked on the counter, then bent down to peer at every shelf "Is that it? Is that my knitting?"
She walked towards the aisles, continuing the refrain. "I've lost my knitting. I have to find my knitting. I've lost my knitting."
After 5 minutes (during which we all try very hard with very little success to not burst out laughing), she came back with a beaming smile, brandishing a bulky plastic bag. "I've found my knitting. I found it. It was in the aisle. I found my knitting."
If only other, perhaps more important things, were so easily found as well.
The end is near
The concept that large civilizations naturally come to an end at some point is not particularly new, and not even really debated. What exactly the signs of impending doom are and how soon it might occur are the controversial parts. I don't claim to be an expert, but I have to admit to seeing signs that I think imply the end is near. The most obvious is that society is becoming so wealthy in material goods that luxury ... no,
decadence has become not just common place, but expected.
Case in point - I actually got a lecture for feeding my horse whole apples. Not only were these apples windfalls (ie, they had bruises, small worm holes, etc), but *gasp* I hadn't cored and sliced them! Horrors! (I peeked at this woman's own apples out of disbelief - yes, all neatly cored and sliced. Not peeled at least, but stored in an airtight container so they didn't turn brown) And to compound my animal abuse, I gave him water from the hose spigot instead of bottled mountain spring water!
Is this what too much money and free time does to you? Causes you to completely lose touch with the reality that the rest of the world has to face on a day to day basis? Or am I, with my watertight roof, clean bed, and full refrigerator (not to mention horse), so underprivileged and poor that I'm ingesting things that even an animal shouldn't have to eat? Yes, I eat apple cores and drink from the spigot myself.
Disillusionment
Last night I came face to face with a gaggle of 14 year old teenage girls trapped in the bodies of 50 year old women. I do realize that I'm the idiot/fool here, to have expected maturity to come with age, but it was still something of a shock to suddenly be plunged back into middle school. Like waking up abruptly from a nap on the beach because some imp dumped a bucket of ice cold ocean water over my sun-warmed back, I was suddenly jolted out of my fantasy world and faced with a circle of avid, malicious, judgemental faces again. Just as petty and disturbing, but with more wrinkles now.
No wonder this world is on the verge of self-annihilation.
Dog "Treats"
