Dew point…

The condition of alienation,

of being asleep,

of being unconscious,

of being out of one’s mind,

is the condition of the normal man…

Society highly values its normal man…

It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd,

and thus to be normal…

Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years…

Our behaviour is a function of our experience…

We act according to the way we see things…

— in The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise, R.D. Laing

I can’t exactly remember when,

but let’s say some time last week,

I was washing my car,

in front of my house,

because it was a nice,

warm,

mo’vember day…

Some neighbours I haven’t seen for some time,

walked by,

asking me what I’ve been up to…

It’s becoming more and more challenging,

with each passing day,

for me to condense,

what I’ve been up to,

into a few tidy sentences,

that are processed enough for other people to chew,

and swallow…

Not everyone can handle a raw diet…

So in this particular case I just kept it simple and sufficed it to say,

I’ve been writing…

Of course they wanted to know,

About what???

That’s where things get a little more dicey,

but I’m getting more comfortable with saying,

About whatever happens,

wherever I happen to be…

One of the ladies stood there for a second,

trying to think of something brilliant to say,

so’s I might have something to write about…

I said,

It doesn’t work like that…

The minute someone tries to feature themselves,

it backfires…

The ego wants the mention,

but doesn’t always like what is mentioned…

I never have to go looking for things to write about…

They come to me…

Right about that second,

a Bekins moving truck came roaring around the corner,

and pulled up,

directly in front of us…

I knew what they were there for,

and by the time the two men,

in their mid-fifties,

disembarked from the cab of their vehicle,

and the words,

Beautiful car,

whistled their way onto the sidewalk,

I winked a,

Watch,

and learn,

at my neighbours,

The two men went onto the neighbouring porch,

with their dolly,

and as they wheeled away another old fridge,

to add to the large collection in the truck…

I found out that there’s an upside to appliances,

which have been rendered obsolete…

One fellow explained,

in response to my holy landfill batman,

First the freon gets removed so that the terrorists can’t make bombs,

and the metal gets turned into car parts,

or beverage containers…

The other fellow said,

Yep,

last fridge of the day…

After this it’s straight home for a couple of beers,

and the good ole hockey game…

I asked,

all daisyduke,

in my overalls,

and steel-toed rubber boots,

That sounds like a great end to a long workday…

What’s your beer???

The conversation immediately went 649,

when I heard,

I like a Honey Lager,

and buddy here likes his Thirsty Beaver,

straight out of the bottle…

I couldn’t have planned it any better…

I turned to the two ladies standing next to my car,

as I sprayed all those suds down the road,

with the nozzle on full force,

and said,

I’m listening to the people who haven’t been heard…

The ones others write off,

right from day one of Kindergarten,

because they need to be on the move,

and their minds work faster than can be assessed,

using standard instrumentation…

I see what makes them tick…

And they can see,

from a mile away,

that I’m all ears…