These thoughts often enter my mind as I drive 80 miles daily to and from my office.
Lemmings and frogs.
In a lemming-like march to the sea, I follow the seemingly endless line of trucks and automobiles as I cross state lines for illicit purposes – to submit myself to vehicular violence to the soul.
Where are all those people going? Are there really that many jobs out there? Aren’t we supposed to be in some sort of recession or depression or digression or whatever it is called?
When I think about gasoline prices and my excitement over finding petrol for under $4 per gallon, I know something is wrong, yet I cannot quite put my finger on it.
Sure, fellow humanoids in Europe and other places in the world have been paying twice this amount for years. But this is the United States of America. Such usurious prices are not supposed to affect us. We experienced the 1970’s oil crisis, being allowed to purchase gas only on even or odd number days depending upon our license tag numbers. We have gone through enough. We should no longer be subjected to such indignities.
Well, we missed that bet. As our dearly beloved friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright recently exhorted, the “chickens have come home to roost.”
Seriously, we all knew that our next crisis was merely a matter of time. But we thought we had time. Plenty of it. Or at least enough of it – for us. Maybe not our kids but what the hey! Let them deal with it. We had our Vietnam, oil crisis, Cold War, and hyperinflation, and we endured. It will toughen up our children and mold them into responsible, productive members of society. It will build character.
We – or I – do not need to build character, right? We have suffered and survived. We need do no more in this lifetime. After all, life is short. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Excuse my paraphrasing the Bible, but that seems to be an abiding principle for many.
Of course, we know the truth, but we choose to wait until tomorrow before facing it. Many tomorrows have passed and look what has happened. Al Gore now tells us we are destroying the planet and wins a Nobel Prize for waxing eloquently about our wickedness.
We talk about alternative fuels, but no national commitment emerges to frame the issue, define the challenge, and lay out a solution. For the past 25 years, I have been morally certain that we would soon exploit wind, water, solar, and nuclear energy as we reshape how we fuel our personal and national activities.
I was also sure that opening new industries and skills would provide meaningful and well-paying jobs for the next generation (or two).
This has yet to happen. It will, of course, but not until nearly every drop of oil is out of the ground or the price per gallon exceeds the cost of a ticket to an NBA basketball game or a romantic dinner for two.
We do not want to be troubled by troubles. We wish to keep on keeping on. All these problems will pass, we tell ourselves. Tomorrow is another day.
Until then, I will engage in veritable bumper-to-bumper combat as I wend my way to work.
I mentioned frogs, didn’t I? Yes, frogs. That is another striking image that comes to mind as my eyes gaze and glaze over the miles and miles of cars in front of and behind me.
It is the story about these amphibians being placed in a pot of warm water on the stove. The heat is turned on. The temperature rises gradually and the frogs hardly notice. Eventually, of course, the water boils. Frogs are hardy creatures, but not that hardy. They perish. Will we? Never!
We can deal with this. We can take care of anything.
Tomorrow.
+++
Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 650 words.
July 20, 2008
Email a friend
+++
YETMO: “You’re Entitled To My Opinion,” A Balanced Point of View
"To stimulate thought, debate, and introspection”