And, if you do decide to recycle, make sure you do what my step-mother called a "half-a__s" job

Contributed By:Dorothy Nevils maslivend@sbcglobal.net

Immediately, something I heard several years ago sprang to mind, and I saw – and heard – my friend, Bernice Joyce, at lunch at Roosevelt, without turning her head toward the speaker, bend her eyes skyward, and, moving only her tongue, a talent no one could master better, mutter tersely, and almost soundlessly, the pain packaged tightly, just above the space between her eyes, “Why don’t she shut up?”

This referenced party was one who seemingly loved – no, worshipped – the sound of her own voice, for it mattered not if all eyes had sunk – and stayed – to a level just high enough to share sympathy with the person right across the table. However, for the life of me, I cannot remember her name…but maybe if I’m quiet long enough, it will come to me… and I’ll feel really, really guilty, especially if she has crossed over to the place of peace – even though we around her didn’t get a whole bunch of it when she got going!

We all have at one time or another been the one tired of the same old thing, tired of hearing the same old message, set to the same old tune. So, what do we do? We turn it off.

That, however, is a child’s response. See, children don’t have a lot of power – not a bunch of “outs” for kids: They gotta “wear the wind the way it blows,” or suffer the consequences. You perhaps know by heart, “Don’t do as I do. Do as I say do.” That “kina” worked for kids, but not for adults!

I’ve gotten used to being “dumped on,” and this by friends, I’ll have you know, some longtime friends… and some, even, “pew sharers.” But, if you know me, I earned the label! I worked hard to be the person who’s “always telling people what they ought and ought not do.” If you don’t believe me, ask my ex-students, ex-husband, and a whole bunch of others… including, for example, the boy “cussin’” in Walgreens, and the youngsters at my church. I believe in spreading the good news – in other words, what you ought to do…

Realize that you don’t know everything! In fact, there’s a lot you don’t know, some, I daresay, that “goo gobs” of folks do know. Right now we have people in power who dismiss what scientists have studied for years, folks who can barely spell the word “global”… or “warming.” Yet many of us will believe those who can’t pour ??? out of a boot if the directions are on the bottom! We argue with scientists… but believe “slicksters” with barely enough brain to fill a guinea’s egg – with the baby still in it!

As a kid, I remember the women who gathered in our back yard swearing on the “meteorology of the knees,” while today’s “educated” pay no heed to signs “written across the sky,” of torrents washing away towns, or Monday’s hot, parched, lawns buried under Tuesday’s 4ft snowfall. “There is no such thing as global warming!” Don’t trust the scientists! Trust the president! Trust what you‘ve heard, what you want to believe!

Be lazy! Throw what no longer serves you in the garbage. Separate nothing! Just dump it all…

And, if you do decide to recycle, make sure you do what my step-mother called a “half-a_s” job: Don’t wash the mustard out of the bottle… throw the pizza box in: Never mind the grease…and, so what if it’s a napkin – It’s PAPER! Who has time to sort stuff out… to distinguish between plastics… to make sure things are recyclable? You have things to do! Who cares about another generation… even your grandkids’?

Story Posted:05/24/2019