“City sidewalks, busy sidewalks Dressed in holiday style In the air There's a feeling Of Christmas”(Silver Bells/Livingston/Evans
As I was headed to my gym in WEHO, the light poles dressed in banners written with Holiday Cheer, and Season’s Greetings, most storefronts selecting red bows, some silver shiny mylar to look like this and that, I noticed two kinds of folks carrying bags and boxes…some well-dressed men and women arms filled with soon to be gifts for friends and family tied in decorative ribbons… and a group of men and women, pushing their shopping carts, brimming with plastic bags clanging loudly as they hit each pothole or bump on the sidewalk from the aluminum cans inside, or the shrieking of plastic bags inside plastic bags, swooshing as the wind managed to peek inside…and inside, as they pushed along or carried loads of their black plastic bags were, what I imagine to be the TOTAL of their belongings!
“I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh I saw the photograph…” (A Day In the Life/Beatles)
The 20th American member of the Military died today in Afghanistan. No notice from the White House with more details, but the Taliban did take responsibly for the death. Surveillance cameras have noticed a few more potential sights in North Korea from which launch pads might be erected carrying nuclear warheads. The Democrats held a debate and decided to eat their own. Trump and his Crime Syndicate are on a two-week vacation in mar-A-Largo, at the taxpayer's dime. And speaking of dimes, the SNAP program, and Home Delivered Meals budget is being cut.
“You're so vain You probably think this song is about you You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you Don't you?
Don't you?” (You’re So Vain/Carly Simon)
Don't you?” (You’re So Vain/Carly Simon)
Walking back from the gym I also noticed a bunch of people at Starbucks all in the latest trends of fashion, and almost all of them were wearing their straight-legged jeans, and each and every pant leg had a precision cut, a slash if you will, to assure the knee cap provide a little skin, and the really, really cool ones had a few other smaller cuts and slashes, to provide the ultimate chic appearance of poverty to the tenth degree. Passing them, were to women in a combination of ripped clothing, with no stitching, just holes in their clothes, and a combo of rags, dirty and torn to cover their upper torso. They too were carrying plastic cups, the ones they had just discovered by leaning over the trash cans sipping the remains of whatever spittle and coffee were oozing at the bottom.
Just a day in the life. I am not holier than thou by any means…and I often mutter there for the Grace of God go I…but I can’t stop looking, and listening, and wondering WHY!
