Miscellaneous

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to know everything that’s going to happened throughout the rest of your life? Would you want to know if you could?

What about knowing just the high points? Would that be enough to satisfy your curiosity? I’m not sure it would be for me. But, then again, I think I’d rather know nothing about the future than a few tidbits.

What if your palm had been read when you were young and the palm reader told you that you would die young, would you want to know that? Would you make plans for that? Buy more life insurance so your children would be more financially secure? What if the palm reader told you that you would live to a very ripe old age? What would you differently?

What would you change about your life if you knew what the future would bring your way? I suspect that most of us wouldn’t change anything. We’d just keep going down the same path we were on and let whatever happens rush right at us.

Is that just human nature? Or, is it fear? Do we not know how to make ourselves ready? Are we looking ahead or are we watching our feet as we stumble through each step? Planners look ahead and make changes in course as needed. Watchers look around them and see only their next step or, at most, the next hill in front of them, ignoring the mountain off in the distance.

The Earth seen from Apollo 17. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Can’t help but wonder if that’s the reason that, even though we know that we’re killing our own planet, we just keep going right down that same path — step by step. No change in course. No plans for stopping, much less reversing, the damage to planet earth. No thought of tomorrow and the planet our children and their children will inherit.

Why is that? Is it collective stupidity? Or, do we just not care?

Why aren’t we insuring our planet’s future? After all, it’s our children’s future as well.

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but at some point or other, I started to really dislike shopping.

I’m not talking about shopping for something specific like a ladder or a lamp for my office. I’m talking about window shopping, browsing for fun, strolling the mall to see what’s new — that sort of shopping.

I can think of about a gazillion things I’d rather do with my time, including going to the post office. Shopping is tedious unless there’s something specific that I need to find. But, as with most things, there is an exception or two.

First there’s junk shopping. I can spend a ridiculous amount of time prowling around junk shops, flea markets, antique stores, etc. Junk is fascinating. What makes us buy something then a few years later discard it? (Okay, I do have that thing about switching sofas every few years, so never mind.)

Second is Internet shopping. I can spend half a day on Amazon. And, then there’s Muffys. (They have saddle shoes. Real ones. In brown or green as well as black.) Then there’s Greenleaf. I tracked them down after a vacation in Charleston where I found the best sachet — honey and orange — pure bliss for my sniffer.

You can find almost anything you need online. I was looking for those long sock things you see in front of the freezers at the supermarket one day and after only about a half hour of searching — bingo — PIG. (In addition to Absorbent Socks, they have a fun & games page with the Match game, Morphing Sparky, and Mind-Reading Swine. Ya gotta’ see it!)

So, what brought all this up? I made my annual Spring pilgrimage to the local mall a couple of days ago and found a great sweater, but not in my size. Of course, the clerk called around to their other stores and found one for me. So now, I have to go pick it up tomorrow at the “big” mall about 30 miles away. I dread it. Too many people. I haven’t a clue where this specific store is in that mall. It’ll take forever. Yada, yada yada.

I really like that sweater, though.

Guess I’ll just have to tough it out.

If you don’t hear from me within a week, send out a search party ’cause I’ve gone on a shopping spree!