Never know what the day will offer

We never really know what a given day may deliver to our senses and sensibilities. This past Wednesday delivered a near miss (for me – less lucky for others).

15 minutes later I found myself waiting between two views; one a Wisconsin view;

the other a faded view of a mountain in Mexico.

Later in the evening, after installing microphones and video gear for an event recording session, I was shown a huge quantity of boxes filled with “stuff” from China. Apparently when “stuff” worth less than $5 is shipped 3rd class and can not be delivered to its intended recipient it sits in the main post office to either go to land fills or, in this case, be distributed by a post office employee to non-profit organizations. I found my self in awe of the quantity of “stuff” as well as the generous spirit of the post office employee who took it upon himself to do the work of sorting and extending the life of this “stuff.” The stuff consisted of 2011 calendar books, pens, aluminum water bottles, children’s small toys, tote bags, baby food spoons, (the list goes on). Literally thousands of individual items — all made in China. I could not help but consider, on the way home and since, how crazy our culture has become. Somebody paid to have all this “stuff” manufactured, shipped across the ocean, driven in semi-trailors across this vast land, distributed through our postal system, only to end up as junk in a land fill; not worth retuning to the distributor. In other words I witnessed an economy of manufacturing, shipping and distributing worthless junk to be buried in our mountains of metal, plastic and paper as a testament to our cultural values. Even as I type this I just received a call from just such a “junk pen distributor” wanting to sell me a lot with my company name on them. This is happening in every city’s central post office. It’s one thing to talk about a “culture of consumption” where we actually use our resources (excessively) and something quite different to consider our “culture of flagrant waste” — of materials, fuels and human energy.