Well, if you've been here before, you know I like to go garage saling. My garage sale social circle has been busy lately -- and also it has been a Florida summer -- so I haven't gone much, but I went to three this last weekend by myself.
At the last one, I picked up a pair of leather pants -- I want a pair of leather pants for an eventual costume -- and as I tossed them over my arm something felt odd so I searched the pockets and found a credit card and some cash. Party clothes I assume, where someone didn't carry a purse. I'm only surprised there wasn't a driver's license too -- or maybe she was old enough she didn't get carded anymore.... But....
OF COURSE I turned around, laughed, and asked the teen in charge, "Hey, who's Catherine?" When he said it was his mom I held up the pocket contents and handed them over. OF COURSE.
So why did he, and the other lady at the garage sale, act as if this was a big deal?
Then, on the way home, I saw a truck with a bunch of bumper stickers. Protect America, Be American. Stop Socialism. I can't remember the rest, but I remember they made me sad. (I came to grips a very long time ago with my socialist tendencies -- in that I think that no one should die because they don't have enough money for food or medicine. Ever. I think that point of view is very American in the whole Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free... way and it makes me sad when someone, even a bumper sticker, implies I'm not American because I think differently than they do.)
Then The Rejectionist linked to this.
And I got more sad. Really really sad. My heart hurts. Oh yeah, that was another of the truck's bumper stickers. Marriage = One Man + One Woman. (We had an amendment for that up for vote last year, it failed.)
There is a Golden Rule I'd heard, way back when, when I was little. I was probably no older than my Little Girl is now. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Way back then, I heard it. I evaluated it. I decided it was good.
Now there are limitations. All the stabbing and mutilations I think of have to stay in my mind or go on paper. But that's not so bad. It would have been messy if I had really sliced open that annoying woman's every vein (the one in that store that lectured me on my child's name for forty minutes because Lovecraft used it for an evil fish god once) and I don't like messy so much. At least I don't like cleaning up the messy. So over all, it's been pretty easy to stick with this rule.
But, because of this, I occasionally have trouble with this thing that is apparently the real world.
Today, I am having trouble.
Sorry.
On the good side, I found a new funny.
What do you do when life makes you sad?
When I feel world weary, I like to listen to and watch kids (usually my own). Perfect innocence is a precious thing.
ReplyDeleteMy babies ARE cute. Yours aren't so bad either :)
ReplyDeleteExcept Little Boy spent a good bit of time this morning playing Lego Star Wars in an Empire character, killing Leia and Chewbacca over and over and over. Not sure where that fits into this whole perfect innocence thing.
Then again, they did have trouble sleeping last night so the two of them climbed into bed together, which was quite cute.
The thing is that I didn't even have to evaluate what to do when I found the lady's card. My only thought was that they'd be glad I found it -- especially if the clothes were destined for Goodwill, freecycle, or the trash after the garage sale. And I didn't think twice until the surprise on the other person seemed to suggest what I did was unusual. I would trust that nearly everyone I know would have done the same.
But then the bumper stickers showing up while it was still fresh in my mind made me think that maybe they were more right about people than me. Then I read about those people doing such horrible things to that man just because he's gay.
There were so many of them.
Okay, almost time to pick up Little Girl from school. I think I'll take them out for ice cream.
I surf the internet for funnies. I also read the Rejectionist today and yesterday, and was greatly saddened. Times may change but the stupid and the ignorant will always plague us. Tell little Cthulhu I said hello. ^_^ Man, that would be hard to get the bakery to spell right on a cake.
ReplyDeleteRANDOM ASIDE: I don't read Lovecraft because I suspect it might worsen my tendency toward nightmares, but I do research names before I apply them to my children. I knew it was out there and decided it didn't matter. My version is old Irish and spelled differently.
ReplyDelete(Also, I am quite sad that Adolf will always bring to mind the evil of one particular man because that name means Noble Wolf and would be a much better subtle werewolf character hint than guys named Wulf which is lacking slightly in subtlety.)
Not quite so bad. I almost have to look up Cthulhu myself -- at least I would if I hadn't just read it on your post. But, since it's Irish, Daegan isn't going to be much easier for most Americans.
ReplyDelete