Around here, people just put whatever they no longer want out on the sidewalk and wait for somebody else to haul it away.
There's always plenty of electronic junk: computers, radios, speakers, circuit boards, and the like.
Wow, it wasn't a good night for shoes! Or, if you prefer, it sure was a good morning for shoes!
Household items, like ironing boards, refrigerators, microwave ovens, dishes, pans, and silverware abound.
When ever I see these cast-offs, I can't help but think back to the "iron bazaar" in Taloqan, Afghanistan, circa 1969-71, when any piece of metal was recrafted into a new, usable item like a pot.
Or, the "broken dish bazaar," where chipped and shattered pottery pieces were patiently stitched back together.
I even came upon a cast-off, back-lit knock-off of The Last Supper.
This was a downright eerie find so close to Easter.
This I salvaged, took home and cleaned up for display in the bedroom window in what used to be the kids' room, but these days is our storage facility.
***
Remember when those T-shirts -- "Born to Shop" -- were so popular with young women not so long ago?
They should have been followed up with a sequel -- "Born to Throw It all Away."
This is not a knock on females; I'm certain that American males throw away even more stuff, including bigger stuff like the electronics mentioned above, plus the occasional car, boat, motorcycle, machine gun or tank; not to mention their most precious relationships.
It's just that as I was walking around this cluttered town, I had a vision.
In this vision, the surviving artisans in Central Asia, who have preserved their ability to eek out a living from the scraps discarded by their ruling classes, will prove to be better suited to the dismal future awaiting all humans on earth than our middle-class families here, grown so soft and vulnerable.
I utterly reject and hate Little Bush's pathetic description of our time as a "war of civilizations," but I do know this much.
No Muslim throws away a religious artifact the way one of my careless neighbors so heedlessly cast off his multi-media Jesus.
Forgive me for hearing the following song in my head:
"Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me.)"
-- The Flaming Lips
***
That seems to be a fitting enough way to close this particular post. Except for this: What the hell was I referring to by mentioning immaterialism in the title above?
Courtesy of Wikipedia, I was simply referencing my old philosopher friend, the immortal George Berkeley:
Immaterialism is the theory propounded by Bishop Berkeley in the 18th century which holds that there are no material objects, only minds and ideas in those minds. Berkeley summarized his theory with the motto "esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived.")
See, this is how our dear town of Berkeley, CA. got its name. (A little known fact.) No wonder people there are always acting out!
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment