It ain't a great day, folks. www.artmojos.com
My art friend Judy tells me they can’t have any more chili cook offs at the Historical Society in town because of the New County Rules.”You know” she says, “you all at the Guild can’t legally have that spagetti dinner you’re having at the Art meeting, tonight, right? It’s against the rules. You have to have a commercial sanitary kitchen with paper work and permission from the county.”
I say “Yeah. Fock ‘em.”
I’m mad.
“We couldn’t,” I say bitterly, “even have real food at our recent big art show down the mountain in that really nice place. Last year we had a huge spread of home made food there and everyone came for the food. Not the art. The food!
“This year, every last bite we laid out had to be commercially bought and sealed in plastic. Crackers in plastic, peanuts in little plastic packets, bottled colas. No more homemade lemon aide with fresh lemon slices and real ice tea…no more home made main dishes or desserts. It was a disaster. People hated it. I never want to go to another plastic art show.”
Judy agrees.
“It’s totally awful,” she says, “pretty soon we’ll have to ask permission to use toilet paper on our butts.”
I’m thinking, “Geez. I need to go up town and see the sights. Just get away from being so mad about all the increasingly intrusive rules we are all expected to live by.”
Walking into the post office I get in the long line that’s waiting to be served. I love the post office but here they are, having to fire lots of workers and maybe not being able to survive.
I think the post office is the very best for moving mail quickly and with the least expense. But, who cares what I think, right?
I’m just hanging, waiting for my turn to (eventually) come up to the counter when suddenly I realize there is a huge big man in line causing a commotion. He’s yelling at the man next to him and at the whole post office.
“I’m scared!” he thunders. “To even leave the house any more with all this new deadly flu that came in from blank blank carried by blank blanks…!! And who made that flu? Who’s experimenting with deadly viruses that can get away from us and take out the population? I’m gonna have to start wearing a mask when ever I leave the house…!”
The postal worker behind the counter calls out, “It’s the Government flu!”
Which sets the man off on the government.
I lean near the man he’s personally yelling at.
“I think I came in here in the middle of something,” I whisper.
The great big man is now waving a letter in the air.
“It’s a bill from San Diego Gas & Electric! ” he shouts. “We all know their power lines went down in the wind and we had the huge fire storms because of them. So now they raise their rates to cover what they did to us. My house burned down! How dare they even send me a bill!”
The man next to him says “I was a firefighter in that fire.”
The big guy scratches his chest. It’s kind of covered by a tee shirt and old woolen something, but his furry belly hangs out.
“I’m afraid to even pick up my mail any more with all the contamination of everything. I’m gonna’ have ta’ carry bacterial wipes and wipe down every thing I wanna’ touch.”
He looks at all of us and we all look at him. There’s a very long line.
“Obama is ruining the country!” he bellows.
It turns out, according to this man that “Everybody is ruining the country, you can’t do anything you want anymore, there are no freedoms left to step on!”
Well. He has my attention with that one. We The People can’t even have a fund raising dinner or homemade food made by little old ladies who really know how to cook.
The man snorts loudly like he’s raking up a huge knot of phlegm.
“I got a mother dying in a care home, those damn blank blanks let her fall out of bed, she has a huge gash on her back and they can’t fight the infection.”
“I got a new motorcycle and they didn’t send me the damn keys. Then they sent me the keys and the postage wasn’t enough so the keys got sent back! That’s why I’m here. To get those damn keys.”
I can’t help myself. I’m trying to be helpful.
“Life” I call out to the man “is a carnival. If you see it that way it helps.”
Mr. Outraged looks at me and yells, “Did ya’ ever see that Movie Carnival Whore?!”
….ah noooo…..
The old lady behind me in line leans back away from me and her eyes streatch out to her forehead.
OK. Guess I won’t be dishing out any more unasked for advice!
But, I’m busy thinking. This man doesn’t seem truly nuts. He seems like he is on the thin edge of the knife between ‘normal’ people and ‘crazy’ ones.
I have the sense that he is just expressing verbally and in public for a captive audience, what many of us are thinking and feeling about life right now.
He’s just being more generous and outspoken with his observations.
When I leave the post office I feel better and I feel worse.
I feel better because Mr. Loud just lanced a boil for the rest of us.
I feel worse because more and more is being taken away from us.
It’s true that life is a Carnival and that’s what makes it interesting. But there is no law that says we can’t jump in and stop the trainers from beating the elephants or taking the food away from the parrots.
We can right what we think is wrong by speaking up and saying “‘Fock ‘em’. That’s not right and We The People are not going to let you get away with it.”
And then we have to do something. We can do what we can to right the wrongs that bother us while the Carnival continues to amuse us.
The Carnival of Life ain’t going away, folks…but it can be less painful then it needs to be.
……
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Tags: angry, carnival, mad, man, post office
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LOL Your life is a carnival…not sure what happened to mine!
That man has a valid point, how many times has crazy stuff happened to us I understand his anger and it was good to get it out glad he did not “go Postal” I sure feel like that sometimes don’t we all?
Hi Venus,
I’m most impressed with the way you handled the “whore” comment!
You barely flinched, and then let it go.
Cat
So many of us see the wrongs, but don’t want to be the crazy guy at the post office! We don’t feel as if we have the power to right wrongs. We’ve forgotten how to protest (see the Occupy nonsense). Most of us never get off the Merry-Go-Round of the carnival, with eyes only on brass ring. Thanks for the wake up call, Venus, and Post office guy.
Just reading about your experience makes me want to reach for the anxiety meds!
It makes me sad that this man is so angry and fed up – but I do think so many are! Look at your example about the food! So next bake sales to raise funds for school kids projects will require an inspection – from the gov agencies that screwed thing up in the first place?
I have to change focus when I hear these thing as it raises anger in me as well and serves at least one good purpose. To remind me to speak out – in a way that I am not labeled crazy!
Reply · Like · Unfollow Post · 2 minutes ago
Mary Buchanan P A · Port Orange, Florida
P.S. Your captcha doesn’t work either – I will work to stay calm – LOL.
Reply · Like · Unfollow Post · 21 seconds ago
Love you Venus. I doubt that it is illegal to take food to a county park. Have the meetings as a Picnic. At least you will be outside. The post office orator was a half empty kind of person. Apparently he couldn’t see that he is not in nursing home and actually can afford a new motorcycle and that he is still above ground getting to expound. Let’s hope he sees it that way sometime in his future. It is a kind of interesting take on “we are all one”, well maybe not that one. Hope your day got better. You are still breathing!!….Barry
Usually, I feel good after hearing/reading your stuff, but this one left me twisted up like a rag. I’ve seen crazy, and that man was past the edge. The main problem all around is fear. What if an “official” comes around to cite us if we don’t have the proper permission? Little chance of that with fewer inspectors and the County isn’t hiring. Private functions that don’t involve selling to the public are private, and nobody would snitch anyway. If anyone should happen come around for your art sale food, you say that it was catered and have a dummy copy of official paperwork. The real problem for government workers is that there’s often some litigious person who claims illness or injury, whether real or not, and it’s their job to keep people safe. They are in as much of a bind as everyone else. How many people have been killed driving because they weren’t wearing seatbelts–which are mandated? Some fool would probably sue the government if they didn’t have such a law. It all comes down to fear, so maybe you can do something about that.
The Post Office is like the weather, an experience shared by almost all of us. If you can’t rage at the Post Office, where can you rage? I’m a postal worker – we rage too, but not in front of customers, usually.
Venus, thank you for expressing you have here. Thanks to Postal Guy. I’m in Canada, watching the U.S. and am so dismayed by what I’m seeing, as so many of us are here. It just looks like the Powers That Be are trying to grind everyone under the boot of Control. Through over-regulation, like the art show food, through legislation that spits on the Bill of Rights, like the NDAA, attempts at internet contol (SOPA), airport scanners, fear propaganda on the news, parasitic greed of a few that keeps everyone else on their knees, the list goes on.
I’ve followed your work for 6 years. You are unfailingly upbeat; if Postal Guy managed to articulate you and so many are feeling, I’m not wrong to be watching as I am. I’m part of a spiritual group, they all are locked on the 5D things like beauty, grace, respect, happiness. To plug into what is happening to the U.S., the corruption, the growing darkness, is apparently so 3rd dimensional of me. They aren’t noticing, most are American. So thank you. If you are seeing it too and saying it I feel better.
Venus, the plastic food stuff came because someone sued someone else after getting ill, or lying about getting ill. All the things people are exasperated about came about the same way. If we weren’t such a litigious society, we’d have less rules. On the other hand, even with a law mandating it (in California) people are too stupid to turn their headlights on in the rain while driving and they endanger others who cannot see them. I agree with Barry — this idiot screaming about his motorcycle keys couldn’t even be grateful he had a new motorcycle! Glad I’m not married to the postal idiot. That’s what I remind myself when I see a difficult person– at least I’m not married to THAT!
This is very thought provoking. Much is being taken away form all of us and we need to do all we can to keep our God given right to be. Government on all levels is too big and getting more domineering all the time. We are heading for a very tough time and we all need to decide what we personally can do to stop the madness.
Oh boy, what can one say here!
I think you have touched on something that is going to be a big issue from here on in – taking our power back from the f***ing governments!
The situations are crazy, not the people who speak out against them. I think the time has finally come ( up until now not much got done and so I think we had gotten used to not doing much about anything).
About the guy in the postal office, maybe some of what is happening in his life has to do with lack of response? And maybe just complaining at the wrong place at the wrong time? (or maybe right time, it did get into your blog!
I think it’s good too, that you all think it’s crazy they don’t let you bring food to your events maybe that was just the last straw before people started speaking out? (Or maybe just ignore them and bringing food anyway?)
This week in Greece some farmers brought produce into Syntagma Square in Athens, right in front of Parliament, and gave it away FREE to people, because they were fed up with some political games that were being played, forcing them to dump their produce and have it go to waste. So they just decided to give it away (and make a scene at the same time!)
Green energy. Does anyone else find it bizarre that we have to replace our lightbulbs? Cities have replaced perfectly fine bulbs. I think that that is waste. Kind of a contradiction! Who is making these things up? Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for green energy but some things just doesn’t make sense to me. What happened to freedom to choose? This is America, right?
Hi…I love all your very thoughtful comments.
It seems that many people are starting to think for themselves and wake up about what is happening to all of us.
So. What are we going to do about this insane state of affairs?
As long as we don’t say Stop! It will not stop.
A long as we let it all happen..it will happen.
Each of us in our own small way can say ‘no’ and ‘that is enough. Stop.’
xo venus
I think it would be a fun idea to have “food as art” at the art gathering. Artists can make sculptures and other art that resembles, imitates, or is otherwise related to food. It would be funny to see the look on the faces of the council people who hear about food being at the next event, then arrive to see food that is inedible art! :0)
Hi, Venus. Your saying “Life is a carnival” reminds me of my stock phrase “This place is a circus,” a phrase I periodically spouted in various offices I worked in. By the way, my husband works for the Post Office. He might need a job mojo!
HAHAHAHA! “The old lady behind me in line leans back away from me and her eyes stretch out to her forehead….” This little detail cracked me up!
hi venus. caroline myss on her show say’s this usa country lost their freedom’s about around 1980. and loseing more since. she rages against the republicans and other’s. that were no more free than the communist. and allan and margaret mcelroy give’s a hint that the occupy protester’s are here from mother and father god. and it’s just starting , even if some want to see them go away. it must be true. i think only mother and father god could pull that off.