Yes, I strategically placed an F-bomb in the title precisely because I’m hoping to draw everyone’s attention to a species-wide crisis that, especially at this time of year, should be getting better instead of getting worse. While I appreciate that this will not start off seeming like a standard Hermit Chronicle, if you stick with me for a couple more paragraphs, you will see that it is actually a routine experience for me every time I go out and mingle with the rest of you as I tend to the matters of shopping and gathering supplies. That this issue is worsening is a problem for all of us, and it pervades every nook and cranny of civilized society. We are running out of room to run and hide from it anymore, and, sooner or later, we’re going to be forced to spin around and confront it head-on; what remains is what the bloody hell we’re going to do about it.
Every year around the holiday season since 2009, I update and republish an essay called “A Necessarily – Amiss Christmas Missive”. Some of you have read this year’s edition, and any of you who missed it this year might benefit from popping over to read it here when you are done with this essay. The gist of the essay, simply, is a reminder that the holiday season is not merry or filled with tidings of great joy and goodwill toward men and that we would all be better served by remaining humbled in the face of the unimaginable suffering and hardships being faced by our brothers and sisters all around us.
No matter who you are, where you live, or what your flavor of news consumption might be, it’s clear to see that anger, hatred, violence, and vitriol are everywhere you look. We are given plenty of expert opinions, hollow rationale, and over-educated justification for why this is happening, but no one in charge seems capable of mustering the testicular fortitude to put a stop to it, which leaves all of us to suffer the consequences of the paralyzed incompetence coming from the people in charge. This fact makes me sad, but my trip to the store the other day pushed my sadness over the edge and into an abyss of anger and frustration.
I got off the bus as I always do, went into the bank as I always do, walked across the parking lot, and enjoyed my Donuts and large iced tea… Like I always do… And headed down the block for my monthly grocery run. I was wished a Merry Christmas by the Salvation Army guy ringing his Bell as I dumped loose change into his bucket and went inside. I weaved up and down the necessary aisles, got what I needed, had a wonderful exchange with the cashier, headed for the bus stop/ waiting area, and sat on the bench as I packed my supplies into my backpack. Like I always do.
There was a young man, I’m guessing he was in his mid to late twenties, leaning against the wall as I finished packing my stuff and started to walk away from the waiting area and head up to where I would be waiting for the bus to take me home. A man, roughly my age passed me, smiled and said hello… Standard Merry Christmas greetings exchanged… And he sat down on the bench as I walked away. No more than 5 minutes later, as I sat in my own little spot, that same older guy approached me and asked if I minded him sitting with me. I smiled, slid my stuff closer to me so he could find his own seat, and noticed immediately that he was visibly shaking and noticeably scared and upset. He asked if I minded him smoking while we were sitting there together, and I assured him I didn’t mind, chuckling as I told him that even though I’m not supposed to smoke, as my only remaining Vice, I have one myself here and there from time to time.
He asked me if I had seen that guy who was leaning against the wall and wondered if I had had any problems with him. I told him we didn’t even look at each other or engage in conversation – that he seemed to be off in his own little world like I usually am – and I never gave him a second thought. He told me that he had sat down and lit a cigarette and that this 20-something tore off into him, telling him he wasn’t allowed to smoke there(although it is a public smoking area), then called him a “fucking vermin” and said that the old guy was lucky he didn’t have his Smith & Wesson with him or he would have opened fire and killed him on the spot, adding that he was a piece of shit, the world would be a better place if he were dead, and – for whatever reason – called him a “fucking warmonger” (I assume he thought my smoking bench partner was a Vet.
As angry as this guy’s experience made me feel, what bothered me even more, was that, as just another innocent bystander in our general society and culture of innocent bystanders, the number of people who believe they have a right to treat others this way is far too rapidly nearing a majority among us. Boomer that I am, remembering how “cute” it used to be when a total stranger would approach you and tell you smoking was bad for your health and you shouldn’t do it, anyone who thinks it’s “progress” to threaten someone’s life for doing something they don’t approve of has seriously lost touch with what that word even means.
As far as I’m concerned, considering how far we have fallen from “the good old days” of common decency and mutual respect, it’s a wonder that more of you haven’t gone full-on Hermit and, like me, given up on the bloody lot of us, drawn the shades and pulled the curtains, and locked the door behind you on your way back in the house. We can do better than this. If we don’t, our species is doomed to collapse under its own weight.
https://poff.substack.com/p/a-necessarily-amiss-christmas-missive
