Missing Person

Fear follows being dumb; cynicism trails being half-dumb; having your shadow become an unnoted missing-person, is the next prize level.

In this one foreign time zone, I discovered a race that believed any extension or acceptance of credit to be a grossly immoral act.  After intense questioning, they held fast to this conviction, although they themselves admitted they could not immediately see its significance.

For many years, every morning at the breakfast table, this one little fellow would declare, “As sure as night follows day, day precedes the night, “ ‘til finally one bright day his mate slammed down the zither tarts in a huff and said, “Boy, is it ever dumb and repetitive, not to mention predictable and meaningless, for you every morning to say, ‘As sure as night follows day, day precedes night,’” to which he replied, “You think it’s dumb and boring of me to continually point out how night always follows the day and et cetera, well, just think about how bland and unexciting it is that it actually does so!”

“No one’s correct the first time around.”

“Why, you know that’s not true.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

The preceding conversation was brought to you by a non-commercial grant from the firm of “You & You.”

A would-be author was heard to say, “My goal is quite simple:  I wish to be able to write like I think.”  And a passer-by mused, “I’d settle for being able to think like I think.”

J.