A Rant

  150 years ago...which is a split second on the Cosmic Calendar...you were doing well if you lived to 60. Life was hard. HARD hard. If you weren't born into privilege you usually had to build your house out of the materials around you. You defended it with your life from native groups (whose territory you were encroaching on to begin with), thieves, wolves and grizzlies and a number of other animals most Europeans had never laid eyes on, and wild funnels that dropped from the clouds that made the wind blow unlike anything you'd ever seen. You grew and harvested your food. Shoes were a luxury. You had children to increase your labor pool. Medicine wasn't an option. If you got sick, you either got over it...or you didn't. If you got hurt, you either got over it...or you didn't. You didn't strive for luxury, you strived for sustainability.

  Jump ahead to today. We gladly pay the equivalent of $14/gal for soda in 20oz bottles. We buy pre-cut firewood. Know what sodium acid pyrophosphate is? Me neither, but it's in a frozen waffle. Anymore, you can't stand in reasonable quiet at the gas pump as something called "Gas Station TV" now makes sure you're marketed to in the 3-4 minutes you stand and fill the tank. 

  Now I'll be the first to recognize the irony of me using my cell phone and wifi connection to post this babble. But I'm conscious of it. Many aren't. They think this is how it's SUPPOSED to be. Starbucks and Facebook and Netflix and car loans and taxes. 

  I guess it's not SUPPOSED to be anything. It just is. It developed into this. And I can either like it...or not. I can merely hope that in my grandchildren's lifetime they can still get their hands on a book, with pages made of paper,and read about how we got here...once it's delivered to them by a drone from Amazon.