“What will they say about us?” That’s what my inner muse spoke this morning? “…when we are but dust in the wind and our way of life is no more”, she continued.
I knew, with words like that, I had to write today. So unlike yesterday and the day before when I felt like napping or doing piddly shit about the house like washing dishes and dumping the trash and recycling and composting, I am finally playing with the voice in my head. I feel I must write about what it will be like when the refuse created by the majority of us long dead humans are but an oddity to whoever comes after, be they zombies, distant futuristic relatives to homosapiens or beings from another planet looking to colonize or merely excavate what was once upon where we, you and me, resided.
I am not so fooled by the notion that our “kind”, and I use that word loosely, will live on, because we are too full of hubris/stupidity/incredulity, and/or hatred toward our fellow beings, (you pick) to continue to exist. Armageddon my ass. Whilst we might, of course, totally fuck up and nuke ourselves, I think instead we will blithely go by way of previous “evolutions” of man and either disappear mysteriously like the Peruvian Incans or the legendary Atlanteans or whoosh our way into some cesspool or whirlpool caused by our insane contributions to global climate change’s myriad of hurricanes, tornadoes and the like. Either way we may indeed be fucked.
Oh gawd, I’m like the major bringer of all things depressing today, aren’t I? No, not really. I mean I can’t be the only one with my jaw dropping to a floor that keeps descending…are you like really and totally feeling positive about the outcome of these past years of totalitarianism, environmental degradation and fascism on steroids in the making? No? Whew! I must say I’m kind of relieved in that, due to your silence I’m imagining you nodding your head while muttering, yep, me too, uurgh!!
Okay, so there’s safety in numbers and that’s a good thing right? And we, the ones whose heads are screwed on better than others viewing our current national and global state of semi disbelief combined with “what the fuck can we do?”, might find a way to fix things. Hmmmm. Can we?
Well, for one thing, (though environmentally speaking we may be a tad late), we could do something like minding the way we spend our moolah, using all the damn buffalo, making our footprint a whole lot smaller than Shak’s size 22, and making sure the fuckers don’t get their way and destroy what’s left of the USA, etc. It will take a bunch of us consumers to make a dent but thanks to Donald Demento and his band of senatorial fuckups we’ve got a second wave of Covid 19, mega unemployment, maladjusted cops and civil unrest up the wazoo so inadvertently we might be able to wither slow down or turn back the climate change timer a second or two.
But then there’s the fascism and dumbfuckerism. What to do about that? Captain America or perhaps a disgruntled Toady slips a Mickey in orange face’s Mickey d? Ya never know.
Then again, hard as I try to make jokes, it’s really challenging for me to envision a future that is bright and cheerful like a floral Mother’s Day card or me sitting on the beach of a pristine island surrounded by crystal clear waters wearing a bikini and chumming it with a hunky guy who listens to what I am saying and knows just where I need rubbing. Fat chance, i.e.
Enough. Back to the future without wasteful us and any of the MAGA troubles. Just who or rather what will be there to explain how we made such a mess of our once awesome planet? Unless of course “they” know and watched either helplessly or humorously, depending on their particular predilection, as we struggled to thrive, ultimately failed to even survive, except for the few untouched Amazonian tribes who had wanted nothing to do with us anyway.
All in all, call me Polyanna, but I’m holding a fragile sort of hope, that somehow, some way, we will be victorious over the evil, the waste, the ignorance, the hatred, and the despair that looms perilously over us. It will take so much more than a miracle, though daily the hippy in me prays to an assortment of deities to hedge our bets for a bit of woo woo or juju or holy Evian to push us in the right and loving direction. Face it brothers and sister, we can use all the help we can get.
I’m heading now to do housework, make some art, then put my head in a romance novel. Escape do your duty. As to what I mentioned…
Tune in.
Janet Bernson 