the things people do to save the planet can kill us in the short run…
(and notice i didn’t say on the short bus)
texas has been plagued by winds lately. stiff ones. stiff enough to make me nervous about certain trees in my yard that are no longer (partially or completely) amongst the living. i postulated that if the wind was gonna get me, THAT was how it would – but boy was i off. i was flying down IH-35 the other day (which completely bisects texas and is the only interstate to connect mexico and canada, for all curious) at about seventy when i got smacked on the head.
with a mouth like mine that’s not uncommon…except i was in the car alone.
it wasn’t enough to make me veer out of my lane or into the k-rail, but it was a decent swat. i looked around to see who (or what) had done it to see a flattened cardboard box (like we’re all taught to do to them when you put it in a cardboard recycling dumpster) frisbeeing off across the divider and into oncoming traffic, narrowly missing a semi and then continuing up onto the embankment.
my fault for having the top down on a pretty day, i reckon. and i saw the same thing happen a few miles down the road an hour or so later, when i was safely OFF the road and walking through a parking lot to get fish tacos.
now, if those boxes had been UN-flattened it could have been worse, i suppose, as it coulda come down straight over my head and blinded and disoriented me – THAT could have resulted in some rail-careening. but if it had been thrown in the fucking trash none of this woulda happen.
no narrow miss. no almost tragedy. no guest-writer explaining what happened and why the site was going down.
so fuck the planet, fuck saving the trees, and trash yo’ shit. sure, it’ll fuck it up for future generations – but what have they done for you?