WALKING ON THIN ICE

one of my favorite monty python scenes is where they call out “bring out your dead.” we’ve got a bit of bringing out to do.

159,000 people die each day world wide. that’s 1 million deaths weekly, 4.8 million dead a month, 58 million dead each year. that’s a lot of bodies to burn & bury. disposal of the dead is very much alive.

in the u.s. alone, each month 3,500 die in automobile accidents, 42,000 from cancer, and 73,000 from heart disease. during my throat cancer radiation, the doctor told me 85% of americans die from 3 Cs - cancer, car, cardiac.

but, 133 million are born each year. since there are 6.6 billion people alive right now, we grow by 2%, while we die at 1% - that leaves 100% growth in 100 years. hmmmm, we gotta start killing off more folk. or maybe we should just start eating the dead - that way we could turn all those graveyards into something useful, like more golf courses for the uneaten rich.

meanwhile among the living here on the sidewalks of london, we frequently smell cannabis as we walk along. we smell more public grass here than anywhere in the 9 countries and 3 continents we’ve seen so far - including amsterdam where it’s legal. while talking to a guy on the sidewalk, i saw he had a hand rolled cigarette and said “excuse me for being brazen, but is that grass?” he said no, ask that musician over there. in poland, it was a musician also… france a group of x-gens in the park… marrakech a guide… essaouira a store merchant… the u.s. another musician. ahhh, the music of the spheres.

in england, possession of cannabis is a class c offense… police are instructed to confiscate, but not to arrest. stuff’s been around a long time… according to wikipedia, “evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found as far back as the Neolithic age” - 6,000 bc - which makes 8,000 years of use. beer has been around 12,000 years. humans been getting down, decadent & dirty for 1,200 decades now. you’d think with that much practice we’d start getting it right.