Elephant Riders

I have had a series of very interesting personal encounters lately, so while the naval jelly is working it's chemical magic on the rust I thought I would write about them...

A few days ago I went to the grocery store to buy cat food and beer (which, aside from materials for the van constitute the bulk of my consumerism). At the checkout line there was a retarded white girl of about 8 years attended by a middle age black lady.

As soon as I put my cat food on the belt, the girl said "Want a hug?"

"Sure! I'll have a hug!" I hugged her.

"Kitty?" she said, pointing at the cat food.

"Yes. Three kitties."

At this point the black lady had completed her transaction and was trying to leave.

"Want a hug?" the girl said again.

"OK, one more hug, then you have to go."

"OK." I hugged her again, and they left.

I found myself feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and envying this retarded girl for living such a simple, pure life. She reminded me of what I was, once. Innocent. Loving. Happy to just BE.

I'm so glad for her that she is oblivious to all the dark in this world.

A day or two later, I found myself in the local bar. Just a burger and perhaps a couple pints.

A slick looking middle aged man came in with a younger chick who was obviously a stripper. They were completely loaded, and hadn't slept for 24hrs (fucking coke heads.) We had an interesting discussion about cutting grass, loving the smell, and the satisfaction of a freshly cut lawn. The stripper loved cutting grass, and knew how to clean fish. A girl after my own heart. The man, who turned out to be the owner of the strip club, would never bother to do ANYTHING he could pay somebody else to do. He could not understand the gratification of cutting grass. He had never caught or cleaned a fish, despite being raised in Bayou country.

They were so far removed from my worldview, all I could do was laugh at them.

Yesterday, a customer called to order soil. We got to talking about organic gardening, how our food system is fucked, how the economy is tanked and other such gloom and doom. We talked for about 45 minutes. Wow, an honest to god fellow survivalist. He was moving to Texas to start a homestead/organic farm. Lots of people seem to be going to Texas. I didn't really like Texas when I went through there, but I was still a naive, pacifist hippie who thought guns were BAD. Times have changed. I find myself relating better to many of the so called 'psycho' gun toting folk than to pacifist hippies or "normal" people.

That is the second customer in a week who has talked frankly to me about getting OUT.

It's a sign.

OK, back to killing rust.

"Elephant riders to the north bring news of battle.." -Clutch