Post 10

Well, now that I've realized that I don't have to be spontaneous, merely original, here's a heretofore unpublished ditty that I scrawled in a notebook on Oct. 9, 2006. (NOTE: Dave Johns is a man I became acquainted with during my sojourn in Idaho; he was pretty crazy but also very wise in his own way, as can be observed here).
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Dave Johns blames the downfall of modern society on a single invention: the Bic disposable lighter. Prior to the advent of a one-time-use lighter, lighters were kept and cared for; one would refill his lighter should it run out--but no more. Now when the lighter goes dry, you simple throw it away and buy a new one.
Dave claimed that this idea has permeated and corrupted all forms of life. Love, like plastic razors, is now discarded when it gets dull; friends, like disposable diapers, are thrown away if they seem full of crap. In this age of paper plates and plastic spoons, paper families are torn apart when paper men leave paper wives for plastic women.
"Vanity of vanities," said the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Or, to put it more modernly, "all is fleeting." We live in the era of the quick fix and the one-night stand. Fidelity and stick-to-it-iveness have no place in the world today.
So use your plastic lighter to light your paper cigarettes. Smoke, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we invent the disposable lung and liver.
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Hmm.... He may have a point....
On the other hand, while many things have become disposable, we also live in an age of hoarding and packrattyness, so perhaps it all balances out; who can say?