I hate it when I don’t have time during the day to post. It means communications between my brain and my body have broken down somewhere along the way. I have already used 138 peak minutes on my cell. Ridiculous. I got eight calls today, which is unusual, granted, but still. It’s only the sixth. I’m not answering the phone for the rest of the month. Just to be safe.
Standing in line at the post office got me to thinking. When you’re dropping a package off, you stand in line for what, fifteen minutes? Thirty? An hour? Okay, but once you’re done, you’re done. You leave. Finito. But those poor people behind the thick plexar bulletproof glass…they endure a non-stop stream of people who hate standing in line. Each time, it’s the same, with little abbreviation or interlude to the flow. It is, as Friedrich Nietzsche might have said, hell, only with longer lines.
The same could be said of any other job where endless queues stream past in a faceless blur of unmitigated monotony. I sometimes wonder if that’s how God views us? He’s the ultimate cashier and clerk, and life is the line. When it’s our turn, we go up, pay our money (or soul), and in return, we get shipped off to either the Caribbean or the Sahara, depending on what we’ve requested. The only difference is, we all get free shipping. Waiting in line is the same, though.
We all want stuff we can’t have: the better job, the hot wife/husband, the sweet car, the video iPod. I mean, we can have it, but it’s more like on lease to us. We tend to think of our current lives as something to move forward from. I guess it’s only when we face the window, finally, and realize we’ve left our wallet behind, that the truth of our condition hits us. Sadly, there’s no going back home. There’s only a brief flash and then you’re either sipping margaritas and talking to ancient dead people or squeezing fiery maggots from the brimstone pimples that develop on your skin in the extreme heat.
Not to leave you with that unsavoury thought, but it’s Friday. I hope you have a pleasant weekend, no matter where you are. See you Monday.