Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
Tabby: “Lookee here what I’ve got! Lookee here what I did!”
Me: “Well, Tabby, whatever the hell it is you’ve got, evidently at least it ain’t rabies. Which is more than I can say for most of the human species. As for what you did, I admire the time you spent preparing a hole to do it in. I’m awed by the cable you laid precisely into that hole. And I’m impressed by the patience you demonstrated and the trouble you took covering it, afterward.” More than I can say for the human species.
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Humane Society Thrift Store cashier [to the old guy ahead of me wearing a ball cap declaring he was once a US Marine]: “You were a marine?”
Old guy, standing a bit straighter: “Yes.”
She: “Well. Thank you. Thank you for ‘being there’.
Old guy: “Um.” To himself: “Well, shit. Why do you think I’m wearing the cap? Never done anything else in my life anyone was likely to thank me for. But I did shoot at some people nobody remembers once a long time ago. Never figured out exactly why. But if someone thinks that’s worth thanking me for, I’ll try to believe them.”
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Restaurant in town, two oldsters talking across a table.
Oldster #1: “Look what they’re doing! Voting themselves pay raises, benefits. Giving everything away to the niggers and Mescins!”
Oldster #2: “Sons of bitches. They multiply like rabbits. Now they’re getting to be voting age, controlling the government. Half of them can’t even speak English.”
Oldster #1: “Yeah, bastard Communists! They don’t believe in democracy!”
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Seems to me the great majority of the oldsters I come across, watch, listen to as they interact and try to maneuver around in life, are lost. Are fools. No better, no worse than me. Fools, knowing they spent their lives chasing the illusion that the more shit they could acquire, the wiser they’d be thought to be by someone, somewhere.
Some aren’t well off, sure as hell nobody cares what they think about anything because they didn’t pass the test. But then there are the others, walking around in golf shirts, loafers, trying to demonstrate by their cars, their bumper stickers, their personal bearing, that they passed the test. That they know shit someone should want to hear.
Nobody wants to hear it. Not the oldsters without anything, because they aren’t taking anymore tests. Not the youngsters because there’s nothing they see to admire in those richer-than-18-inches-up-a-bull’s-ass oldsters. Nothing they want to emulate except having more shit sooner than the oldsters got it.
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Back before civilization kicked in, tribes and villages supposedly thought oldsters were wise, looked to them for guidance, gave them a role in things. But all that went away when things got complex. Politicians, aristocrats, academians and priests were assigned the roles oldsters had when things were simpler.
Probably not because politicians, aristocrats, academians and priests were better equipped with wisdom. But because the oldsters had demonstrated they weren’t.
No smarter, no wiser than they are today. Maybe it’s time to find some other cadre of fools to replace the politicians, aristocrats, adademians and priests, who’ve had their chance and come up wanting.
How about rappers? Ganstas? How about celebrities? TeeVee stars and rock-and-rollers? Bikers?
They might not be any good, but they ain’t going to be any worse.
And what they get mightn’t be rabies.
So Far From Heaven 