I was shelving some books when Mr. B found me this afternoon. I asked him how he was doing and what he got up to today. He said, "I've been driving around. Looking for something to build but I don't know what it is. I don't know how to build it and I don't know if it exists. I don't even know what it looks like."
He was quite earnest. And looked genuinely stumped.
I laughed lightly, placing a book on the shelf and said, "That's the absolute best thing I've heard all day." He laughed too and said, "Seems like it's the dumbest thing I've said all day."
"Nah. You're on a quest and that's cool but it's gonna be pretty hard to find something when you don't know what it looks like." He agreed.
I couldn't help but think that the universe keeps plopping Mr. B in front of me...he delivers me such gems. And this today...well...not to put too fine a point on it but...aren't we all just out there looking for something? Something that may or may not exist? Something intangible. What does my happiness look like? What the hell am I doing on this planet? What am I looking for? What are we all looking for? Not exactly the type of thing you'll find on a shelf at Walmart.
It's another new year...and I'm never exactly where I want to be. And I'm not alone.
It's me, Mr. B and about a billion other people.
I work in a public library in Any City, USA. The thing about public places is that they tend to attract, well, everyone. From time to time you may get some slightly eccentric folks who become "regulars." My favorite regular is Mr. B. He likes to leave "suggestions" written on index cards all over the library. I've been collecting them for some time and they are lovingly presented here with the original spelling and phrasing. But that's just part of his story...
The bad thing is you are one of the few people who knows she has a choice. That's also one of the good things... most Americans today (& I say Americans specifically) have found their salvation on the shelves of Walmart:
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They also lack the imagination to see beyond their doubley-triple stuffed oreos and steamer trunk sized hot pocket lives. And the country doesn't exactly give them the tools to try to change it.. (even though they all DEMAND the country does so)
It's like Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan saw plain as day how monstrous this mass of humanity is, knowing they KNEW it was there too, but was unable or unwilling to change any of it.
Hopeful people tend to think the masses are UNWILLING to change... That they have it in their hearts to be good given the chance, and with nurturing and teaching, EVERYONE can be a precious flower...
Realists (like me) tend to think that it's not possible for everyone to be even ABLE to see beyond their own Walmart's... the numbers just dont add up. We wouldn't all bow little dirt-foot Honey Boo Boo and her back-bacon house of horrors if even 1% of us had the creativity to question this life...
Too many people would do more than post meme's or comments about it. It just LOOKS like they care, since we've perfected the design of the no-calorie soapbox. Someone could hit the 'share' button all day without so much as spilling a drop of Coke...or let go of their boners... man what a feat that would be....
It takes a bit of heart and Imagination to pull free from that... especially since our basic animal sensibilities can VERY happily live with eating McDonald's till black out.
At least we know we got ONE part of this life down... and it's the part that the world spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year trying to solve... haha... suckers...