"Broken... Everything"

A sign of the times

"Broken... Everything"

September 10th, 2011 - A Community yard sale - I took a stroll.  Ever notice how fewer and fewer 'treasures' you find with each successive community yard sale?  Fewer with anything - to sell, let alone keep.  Fewer buying - fewer bothering to come.  AND the faces - they aren't blank, aren't bad, aren't mean.  It gets so ya don't want to look into the "EYES"!  You don't need to see what's there.  You go through the normal, "Thought the weather wouldn't let ups; too damn hots; too wets; too anythings."  and the bobbing heads agreeing to nothing at all - just the noise.

If you listen as you walk - well, you hear what you shouldn't and don't hear what ya should.  "But Dave - they were Billy's..."  "Yeah, I know, but you can't sell unpaid bills," seems everyone has enough of those.  "It's a sin when spiderwebs get attached to the "For Sale" Sign in your bedroom window - a full summer and not an offer..."  "... never came back from the hospital - poor ..."  It isn't like nothing ever happened before, like no one ever died or moved away.  People go "BUST!" - always have, always will.  But the difference this time is the pervasive scent of helplessness AND just how many are 'busted'.  You EXPECT to hear "Bad" , but now you somehow hear less and less "Good" until all the bad NUMBS you and then you just don't HEAR the good.  It gets to the point you just have to focus on hurts - not to ease them, but just to feel them inside - to FEEL something INSIDE and the cycle feeds itself and the hurts build and grow..and we consciously justify needing to FEEL more while we actually FEEL less. 

I got back to the house, brought up the net... CNN and Yahoo and seems like any site I bring up...

Seems the stock market is down now for six weeks in a row - talking heads say its investors being afraid of all the nothings that still haven't happened, go figure. 

Hmmmmm... But the so called investors are mainly computer programs following pre-scripted buy @ and sell @ instructions.  Fearful computers... hmmm star trek stuff huh?  There are rules and regulations to be followed - always are, and understanding is the key.  Seems someone is always trying to make a buck - so they sell something they have OR NOT and someone buys OR NOT.  Depending on how much or many of something that is sold versus the number of willing buyers the price rises or falls.  Seems the bucks don't come from holding the stocks forever... you may or may not receive a dividend once a quarter or a year or ever.  This is way over-simplifying and not fully correct but essentially it gives you a clue - the value of the stock IS the last price actually PAID for its shares OR the last OFFERED price that WASN'T accepted that was HIGHER than the last Paid price.  Making money is easy - sell for more than you paid - just make sure if you paid nothing for what you sold then you buy it for less than it could have cost... right?

So how does a big bank pay its staff cash and perks or the rent, lease, mortgage, credit cards - whatever?  They sell and take the profits.  They also sell other peoples' stuff and charge to take the profits even if the "profit" is really a loss.  They charge a fee for each buy/sell order.  They used to buy or sell when the prices were several points up or down  and then came computers... with automated buy and sell orders.  Computers don't wait for trends - they work by rote and program... intent.  They also have no conscience that their patterned process can define and produce 'trends' and perceptions of nervousness that really aren't there.  Sigh...

AND The Next Headline... It seems that every week a group of people die (except in the slow news weeks - which is most of the years) sooooo - INTERNATIONAL NEWS!!!  somewhere in this world a plane crashes, a boat sinks, two or more die in a flood, a tornado, a politically induced cry for recognition or change (unwanted by the living majority or not).  And I barely scratched the surface...  Hype sells.  People scream and scream - "LISTEN TO ME!!" "LOOK AT THIS!!!"  and we do - listen and look and become afraid - of our neighbors,.. And our pastors, the police, the councilmen and women we championed bare years back and elected.  The judges, doctors, teachers, unions... soldiers (our own), returning Vets, teens, retirees, homeless, and on and on and on.  And we 'fort' up, hide inside ourselves and our rooms, minds shivering.  I needed a break... ahhhhhh TV!!!

We lose ourselves in TV...  CLICK!  How many ways to die? - there IS a TV show for that.  CLICK!  How many ways to hurt, and cheat, and steal - TV shows for that too.  CLICK!  The rich don't work for anything, are just know-nothing slobs, criminals - its all right to hate them: CLICK!  Lawyers don't follow laws - they make their own; CLICK!  cops are just drug dealers and thieves that ain't been caught enough; CLICK!  CLICK!  CLICK!  ...the Good guys ain't, the bad guys got excuses, on and on...

Sports?  CLICK!  Even the Sci-fi channel has wrestling!  Wrestling - organized cheating and staged public humiliation.  "WHUP A*S!!!" Use a metal chair or table, or a support bar, a floor, a wall.  The lil guy can take out the big baddie this week but not next... put the 'animals' in a cage.  THATS entertainment so bring the kids!  CLICK!  Pro Football - lockout...awww damn... more money issues.  CLICK!  Pro Baseball - well wasn't a strike year but that steriod thing never ends does it?  CLICK!  Pro Hockey - seems the enforcers are dying at an unreal rate... too many body checks and stick slashes.  CLICK!  College levels are Pro-prep... schools get the bucks - players get their first taste of being seriously played.   Sigh... even I give up after a bit for a bit. 

Times are tough - well, times are ALWAYS times, so ya need to make some new excuses for why you can't help, why you can't do...  Why you can't give some time,  Why you can't feel.  Why you're afraid.

"Broken... Everything"

I didn't know the man that died today.
I wish I had...
you really should know people
willing to live
that sometimes don't -
because things are 'broken'.

He died on a hilltop
in the Holy Lands.
A political prisoner -
and they even threw in
a pair of thieves
- for the ratings I guess.
Go figure.

Chris

Author's Note

feel free

Reviews

[roarke]

It's hard to have to watch other still playing the game. We've become a "culture for the sake of profits" our demise soon to be headlined in the record.
Some will pundit it was a "good run"
In the past, Royalty made an effort to make sure the surfs knew the difference between them. But that caused too many riots and revolutions.... now days, everyone looks like an emperor... albeit without clothes... you imagine yourself one of the club.... It's all illusion. Magic is alive and well in the kingdom.
Stop watching the "game shows" and plant some turnips. At least the soup will be real.
Nice stuff Chris, now go have some coffee.....

[M. J. Smith]

My hometown was the headline that year. The Joplin Tornado.
The city wasted no time monetizing it. A memorial run with entry fees the following year.
Yeh, I get it. Life was easier on the road. Probably why I miss it. Astutely observed.

[Chris]

Politics IS political... but why did The 'they" take a person needing a heart and another needing a kidney to continue to LIVE off their transplant list for being ...unvaccinated... as a current (but not a past or an initial) procedural policy? Yep, life is never fair BUT people CHOOSE their own paths with each step.

[M. J. Smith]

Sad but true, my friend.

[Corset]

Mob mentality will string up the innocent beside the guilty. Sensationalism rules the world, the more horrible is it makes it more newsworthy, I have taken up watching animal videos more often than reading all the lies and crap on my load page, or TV. Yes I know I must seem more an Ostridge as I get older but there is only so much of it I can stand in a 24hr period, you nailed it on the head.

[Larry Dyson]

yes me too but its renfair time ..!!!!!! nice one Chris..afraid it is so true...

[Chris]

I miss Larry, I really do. He was the best of us. Rest in pace.

[S.Hunt]

Yeah you can stop watching..but you stll hear it at the grocery store, "the 10% of the country are living of our purchases!" "That we can no longer buy, but there still kicking small businesses like mine to blame the economy on" (overheard at Henry's Grocery) 9-16-11. S.Hunt

[J. J. Nightingale]

And what about all those horders .. Wanting to hold on .. All those drones watching all those balls that don't really MEAN anything .. Is it any wonder so many do not want to know .. want to understand . want to help .. . Do we NEED a new reason to cry .. Hummm .. Maybe we do .. Why do so many live in fear .. Jazz ..

[Teri B]

"being afraid of all the nothings that still haven't happened"

Since September 11, 2001, those tendencies in human nature have been exacerbated, and have grown out of all proportion to reality. It's sad, isn't it? Your piece captures that human tendency to make a bigger mountain out of big things. It captures the confusion, because we fear what we cannot anticipate and do not know.

Hey...maybe it's an odd way of protecting ourselves from the absolute certainty of our own impotence, eh?

[Emily B]

oh, Chris . . . you really know how to get a point across

[Teri B]

Life can take some unfathomable turns sometimes...and the rest of the time, it's scary as heck!

[?]

Chris, this is so so true. Indeed it is the signs of the times.
Im afraid it will only get worse
I love reading these types of writings from you. It makes me feel as though I am sitting on the other side of the converstaion table in that coffee house.
See now you've done it Chris, You have gone and made the blonde one to think.
You are such a deep thinker