Fill 'er Up!

Saw the caption "Fill Er Up!" on the TV yesterday as our local talking heads excitedly discussed how wonderful it was that gas prices were 'down'. One SUV driver after another were shown happily feeding their addictions, relieved that their dealers were reducing the price of their drug. It's obscene, really, how short our memories are, how incomplete our understanding is (including mine). As long as we can 'afford it', we don't care where it comes from, whose lives are impacted, what the long term impact might be.

No snowflake will ever claim responsibility for an avalanche.

Meanwhile, during work today I had to travel to one of our remote locations to pick up some books, and I took my bicycle on a different route through a poor neighborhood. I saw a fence covered with incredible blue Morning Glory flowers. Around the corner from that visual treat there was a porch with four handpainted rocking chairs. Each had a different, very detailed scene, a sunrise, a parrot in a tree, children playing, and a trumpeter. In a neighborhood where most of the houses mope about in plain sack dresses and hushed voices, these two were laughing out loud, dressed in bright purple and gold.

If I had been in a car I would have missed the joy that washed over me.