“A time to refrain from embracing,” from Ecclesiastes 3:5, signifies a season for caution, wisdom, and boundary-setting rather than intimate closeness. It indicates times of danger, grief, necessary independence (allowing growth), or emotional distance to avoid enabling, rather than a total cessation of affection.
That was all I could think about reading the news. Maybe because every day seems more confusing, a reality a little harsher and uncertain. It would be a mistake to call these days bad, but still problematic and uncertain on so many levels. And that sixty-five year old Pete Seeger song popularized by the Byrds sixty years ago is still pretty good as I catch the bus home.
The other day I was thinking what a silly thing those garbage bags people buy to keep trash cans clean and the garbage together until it gets smashed in the back of garbage truck or lit in the burning barrel. Few things can you say you are directly paying for to buy then as part of it’s use paying for it get rid of it.
Now I get the advantage of garbage bags — they keep the trash can relatively clean and the trash together when you throw it in the dumpster. Trash trucks find loading trash cans and dumpsters with bagged garbage easier. If you burn your own, then it helps keep you from accidentally melting your trash can dumping the trash in burn barrel. But it still seems kind of silly to be spending money on something you buy to throw away.
Years ago, people didn’t use trash bags nearly as much. Maybe because the plastics were more expensive, maybe because it was more of a new thing. People might bag their kitchen garbage, but it was rare for regular waste baskets around the house or office to have trash bags. Maybe before recycling was big, the paper would line the cans and keep them neater. But I still can’t believe people spend money to throw it away.
Honestly, when I think I own my own land, I’ll just use the plastic or paper bags I get from the store and use them to line my wastebaskets or feed bags for the kitchen garbage. I don’t produce that much trash, and honestly if I am going to burn the burnable trash, the smaller bags are easier and quicker to chuck in the fire I have out back and burn. With a serious commitment to reduce waste and compost, honestly I think using the small bags you get for free really is a better way to go.
You know this past week, my social media feeds have been full of posts about scientists recovering some of the DNA from the long extinct Dire Wolf. I am sure it’s just a trending topic in the news, but also with all my talk of the Greatful Dead song, Dire Wolf, it’s been decided by the algorithm that I must be a big fan of Dire Wolves and super interested in the news about their potential reintroduction in a Jurassic Park kind of way.
I think it’s kind of hilarious how the algorithms get my interest all wrong about it. And I find that song so funny , mainly because it’s is when you think about it high as fuck, especially with those dreams of last summer sitting by the waterfall and floating down the East Canada Creek on that old truck intertube listening to that song. When you’re high, it just seems so hilarious that idea of playing cards wityh a Dire Wolf in cabin in the Fernando Woods and begging him to “please don’t murder me” at the game of cards, or is it in reality? Between the double meanings, and idea of playing cards with a wolf, just seems so funny when you’re high. Plus the idea of begging not to be murdered, by the intoxicating substance is hilarious.
I get it, intoxication can be bad, but sometimes a vacation from reality is worth a break. Sometimes the mind just needs to get away from everyday problems, have a chance to explore alternative realities, even if it is just a game of cards with a Dire Wolf in the woods of Fernando. It’s such a great song by the Grateful Dead!
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