THANK YOU
i noticed you the other day.
you were sauntering across the morning street, all gray and rumpled, unaware of cars or danger. i pulled up in front of you, and idled the car. i rolled down my window to signal to other motorists to stop…then actually got out of my car altogether to make sure no one hit you by mistake.
you snuffled along, stopping to check out whatever it was you were checking, then merrily headed to the far curb, jumped up and over onto the waiting green grass, meandered along a stone wall, and disappeared through a hole.
there was something comically sweet about your being there. i was thrilled to have seen you. an armadillo at nine in the morning…
i noticed you, again, today, and my heart fell. this time you were in the street, but you were no longer walking. you were limp and lifeless, and a car had found you in the night. oh, the innocence of what you represent…nature up against the machine. a creature searching for bugs or a mate or just out for an evening’s adventure, who can say.
but i noticed you. and i will keep the comittment of stopping to help your fellow armadillos stay safe…
GOODY BAGS
stop it. do not serve goody bags at parties any more.
have activities! have children/parent games! move! laugh! interact! prizes are ok if you are playing and working towards a goal…
like potato sack races, or a “fishing hole” or an art table (they take what they make…like a sand art bottle or a paper bag with glued on yarn hair and bean eyes…)
goody bags are just more crazy components of the fall of human development. it is the “gimmee gimmee!” era that must end.
use the money you would spend on all that material consumption for something educational—a family game you can sit down and play together—or donate that money to your local zoo or safe house. talk with your kids about what they think the money should go towards…maybe paint and butcher’s paper so everyone at the party can make a mural, and the rest can go for books to donate to the local library.
our children need us to say STOP and show them alternatives. don’t buy into the system!!! the system is BROKEN, and it is only about BUY BUY BUY….i’m not even clear on who is gaining from all this buying except, perhaps, the CEOs. but when we make goody bags, we are keeping people in poverty (chinese/taiwanese/indian/thai families, even families here in the U.S., working for companies under slave conditions for horrible money and little opportunity to escape….in many instances, they are, physically,
locked in warehouses, working back breaking hours to make JUNK for the Major 8 countries to buy…WHY DON’T WE JUST STOP!?)
ok, had to get that off my chest!