What a strange, strange journey this is...
Browsing the newspaper, I skimmed an article about a lawsuit involving a person slipping on a shred of lettuce at a salad bar, falling and sustaining a shoulder injury. I don't recall the remedy to "make this person whole", nor is it my intent to belittle the injury. (Unless you practice falling and condition your body, these injuries can be quite serious, especially for an adult).
I can't help but wonder how someone who faces an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) or suicide bomb on their trip to the supermarket sorts their coupons. Will I find fresh fruit today, or will I sustain serious burns, shrapnel, or chlorine gas? Will my son be tortured and murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
It can only bother me if I think about it. I have more important problems to contend with...like finding a nice piece of apple-crumb cake or a smooth Cappuccino. I'm aware of suffering around me, some in distant lands I watch while pedaling my exercise bike to atone for my crapulence. I accept it. I know I am the tyranny of evil men. Our lives are so easy. I think of the struggles of my parents, and of how difficult life was only a few hundred years ago. I think of the heavy steel bikes people ride through the rain to work in China, and the light aluminum bike with shocks that I ride for "sport".
As far as tyranny goes, we're lightweights. The baddest people I've heard of pale to the all time baddest, like Joey Stalin, Hitler, or Genghis Kahn. Bush/Cheney will amount to mere blips of the radar of history, unless something really goes wrong and they let out the big dogs. You never know, things might still work out for them.
At the end of the day, I'll go back to enjoying one more beautiful, sunny day, the same sun shining across the skies warming Saddam's grave. People around me will continue to complain about stupid drivers, cold days, and poor Anne Nichole Smith's untimely demise. But I'll try to be the shepard.
I can't help but wonder how someone who faces an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) or suicide bomb on their trip to the supermarket sorts their coupons. Will I find fresh fruit today, or will I sustain serious burns, shrapnel, or chlorine gas? Will my son be tortured and murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
It can only bother me if I think about it. I have more important problems to contend with...like finding a nice piece of apple-crumb cake or a smooth Cappuccino. I'm aware of suffering around me, some in distant lands I watch while pedaling my exercise bike to atone for my crapulence. I accept it. I know I am the tyranny of evil men. Our lives are so easy. I think of the struggles of my parents, and of how difficult life was only a few hundred years ago. I think of the heavy steel bikes people ride through the rain to work in China, and the light aluminum bike with shocks that I ride for "sport".
As far as tyranny goes, we're lightweights. The baddest people I've heard of pale to the all time baddest, like Joey Stalin, Hitler, or Genghis Kahn. Bush/Cheney will amount to mere blips of the radar of history, unless something really goes wrong and they let out the big dogs. You never know, things might still work out for them.
At the end of the day, I'll go back to enjoying one more beautiful, sunny day, the same sun shining across the skies warming Saddam's grave. People around me will continue to complain about stupid drivers, cold days, and poor Anne Nichole Smith's untimely demise. But I'll try to be the shepard.
posted by Tom Demko at
4:11 PM
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