jux·ta·po·si·tion: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. An interesting word, juxtaposition. Kind of a long-winded word with 5 syllables. Seems like the kind of word one might choose, to use, in a swank cocktail bar in a 5-star hotel, or a word the NY Times Crossword Section would ask for. The amazing thing for me is just how natural the definition of juxtaposition really is, in the REAL world. It is almost like another dimension dancing with joy right in front of our faces, but in camouflage, disguised to look like just one more natural event of the moment. Juxtaposition!
I was walking along Melrose Avenue, the West Hollywood, West LA section to be exact, parked on the street was a van announcing the Real Keto Diet, next to that van a food truck announcing ALL-VEGAN Diet. A LA Metro Bus stuck in the traffic on this now very Chi-Chi high-end retail shopping block, had a huge advertisement on the side of the bus reading. Jenny Craig will help you stop your cravings, and you too can lose weight. A new Gluten-Free coffee shop had its grand opening balloons still waving in the breeze, the purple and pink bubbles of air almost deflated, but still announcing everyone to look at me, look at me…and just because, LA is a huge city, and just because, shit happens, and just because, sometimes there is nowhere else to go, a young boy was sitting on a torn and ratty blanket with a rattier sign reading, I am hungry. The boy was sitting between the Van and the Food Truck. A few feet away from the Food Truck was an overflowing metal garbage can, two older men were arguing over a whose half-empty cup of Starbucks coffee, grabbed from the garbage belonged to whom. As the stalled bus, finally headed a few feet forward (in LA a few feet forward while in a moving vehicle is almost like moving a mile or two,) A woman, perhaps in her mid-thirties, combing her hair with her fingers bent over to pick up one of the tossed cans from the disputed garbage can and took a sip of whatever was left at the bottom of that bottle, tossed it, then finding a cup of something pulled her neck up to the heavens stopped combing her hair with her fingers, and placed the cup to her lips, I suppose drinking the rest of the spittle, almost like commercial good to the last drop. Juxtaposition!
LA is witnessing a building boom, at least the part of LA in which I live. New construction, Mega Mansion homes of 4500 square feet being erected, old family shops were torn down in exchange for high-end merchandise, pricy items with dollar signs that almost scream we only take Black AMEX cards. Melrose Avenue is no exception, there are so many construction sights, and so many Hispanic Laborer’s, I am always surprised that ICE is hasn’t set up a detention center (perhaps the rent is way too high for that). There are gaps of new buildings and the older ones in the transition of being torn down. This kind of a cave-like setting makes a great place for some people who are homeless to find a brief sanctuary, by setting up tarps, if they are lucky, placing a few shopping carts, as an imaginary perimeter, or just lying down on some worn-out jacket or shirt. Juxtaposition!
Trump flies off to his varied resorts, the taxpayers pay. The Tax Cut for the wealthy has created a giant deficit, most likely cuts in Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security/Food Supplement Program/Home Delivered Meals/Affordable Health Care will be the excuse to cut the deficit. You pay taxes, I pay taxes, we pay taxes, but Amazon/Apple/and many of the Fortune 500 Companies don’t pay taxes or hardly pay any taxes, and of course, we have NO IDEA, what the Trump Crime Family and their cronies or are it culprits in crime pay. JUXTAPOSITION! Almost like living a dual universe isn’t it!
