WALKING ON THIN ICE

One friend’s visiting New York and another friend’s moving there. New York is a big black hole. I’ve been there but I can’t grasp it. I do have a taste of Chicago, though. Gosh, I really want to be in America sometimes. I want a hot dog.

Smith just blogged a picture from Cleveland juxtaposed with a picture from France. The Cleveland picture is of a counter at Cleveland’s West Side Market. Three plastic chickens stand on the counter. An American flag hangs between them.

The picture from France is of a healthy free-range chicken in somebody’s cozy yard. Whenever I walk by the yard I feel tremendous happiness and hope. The farmer’s decorated his lawn with antique equipment. On the fence he’s hung three stuffed animals, which are completely open to the elements.

How weird to see the American flag in the Cleveland picture. For eight months I’ve been in a reality where I haven’t seen any flags. I don’t even know what the flags of Poland or Croatia or the Netherlands look like, and I’ve spent months there. But if those countries were more like America, they’d be burned into my brain in reverse video.

Which reminds me–when I say American flag–shouldn’t I say US flag? I mean, America’s two entire continents. But I think everyone calls it the “American” flag.

“The West is destroying the world and the world is destroying the world as well,” I tell Smith.

He says, “Just before we go extinct, we’ll develop some really weird things. They’ll start interacting with each other. Bugs will glow in the dark every other Tuesday.”

He takes a couple tokes, breathes thoughts.

“The sum will start equaling more than the parts, you know.”

“This makes me think of the sinking water tables,” I say.

The Malthusian bust is finally happening. It’s this huge area under the curve and we’ll finally see it with water wars. I read that within 20 years, 3 billion people won’t have access to safe water (right now it’s 1 billion.) We’ve bought tincture of iodine for our stay in Morocco so that we can wash our fruits and vegetables without using fuel or bottled water. We also had some shots which will protect us from some water borne illnesses should we accidentally get water in our mouths when bathing.

I’m working on the blog entry for ArtCrimes. We’ve posted a poem and photo for three days. It’s easy for me to get Smith’s artwork from the web, so I’ve done that for the first couple entries.

“I need other peoples’ ArtCrimes photos,” I tell Smith. “I can’t keep using yours. Can you put them on your stick?”

Smith copies the photos to his memory stick.

“I need a big dick.”

“A big stick?” I ask.

“Yeah, a gig.”

“I’ll lick it.”

“As long as you don’t get my data wet. OK, we’re talking 300 MB here.”

I take the stick from him and copy the files to my computer. “Our computers are going to become self-aware,” I comment. “I think we — the humans — are just functioning as DNA zippers.”

About the water shortage
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0816-04.htm
About safety & scarcity
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0914-07.htm
About Coca-cola’s excessive consumption in India http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-30.htm