Podunk

While i dont doubt it, i had an observation about this fact a long time ago.

I was on a blind date years ago, and was a pack a day smoker. We eat dinner, have dessert and coffee, and stepping outside, i light up a smoke.

"You know those things are bad for you, right?"

"I know, its a terrible habit"

" do you ever wish you had never picked up the first one? It will kill you eventually..."

I took a drag. Held it, and exhaled.

"No. No i dont think i regret it at all"

She tilted her head like a puppy does when you whistle a high pitch with no prompt. It was confusion. She didnt understand. I stomped out my cigarette. We started walking.

"If i think about it, the chance encounters ive had on a balcony, or outside a random doorway with a stranger. conversation with no precontext or preconceptions. Just two people enjoying a thing that will eventually kill them. Theres something beautiful about that"

She still didnt get it.

"Those moments, and the friendships that resulted. They have already saved my life. Times over probably. So a few hours, or days at the end, in comparison to the things that i built off of those little moments, in the moment, where its just people and their habit...

I dont think i would change it"

The date went nowhere. There wasnt really a spark to begin with. It wasnt a big deal. Never saw her again.

But the friend that set her up with me, the one who i met by chance smoking in a backyard at a party. Shes still my friend. We talk once a week, if not more.

Her and her wife are expecting their first child this spring. I was at her dads funeral this fall. Lung cancer. He will never meet his grandson.

Neither of us smoke now. But, despite it all. I do not regret starting with that first smoke. Without that friendship, i would never have made it this far.

But in acknowledging that fact, there is a cost.

Theres always a a cost. But i value the time i traded, and i personally, have no regrets.

Its all a problem. But you missed the important part.

We didnt vaccinate our domestic flocks because it would hurt our export market. We allowed high population sites to become reservoirs for the bird flu, instead. when the virus was detected, we torched the whole flock. But it always spread because we were not willing to remove a vital link in its spread through vaccine protocols. Now it is too big of a problem, and we get multiple spillover events.

There is a vaccine for birds, and we didnt use it. There is no vaccine for cattle.

We should have vaccinated our poultry flocks instead of letting it proliferate for decades. But we had to protect our export market.

Its in the wild populations so heavily now there is not stopping it with culls of any animal species.

So i did a little research. The sad/fun part about my realization is... if you go back far enough in time, before the ice and nothingness, archeologists have pointed out that Antarctica was once a massive forest continent.

Millions of years ago, it had trees, and thus, sticks for days and days.

Once again we are living in the wrong time. Too late to explore all continents having sticks. But also too early to live where all continents have sticks. In the grand scheme of things, we exist in the uneven ground.

It's a sad equilibrium to be sure.

I just realized there is an entire continent where there are no trees, and thus no sticks.

And it isnt a small continent either. it is larger than all of Europe and also larger than Australia. We arent talking about an island or archipelago or even some random landlocked desert. It is a continent.

the fact that there are no sticks that naturally occur there at all... it confuses and concerns me.

This is deeply unsettling to me.

All the crazys that write conspiracy theories on their cars have this exact same script style. At least in my experience. It makes me wonder if the writing style is one of the symptoms. Because it is uncannily similar every time ive seen it.

Thats just hindsight though. Same as now. Its either a catalyst or it isnt. history will write it. My response will be an acknowledgement of fact or a forgotten record.

Thank you for reminding me of bonzaicats!

Railroads played big role. Trains needed more water or coal to run the engine. So every 15 to 20 miles or so, depending on terrain, a water depot was erected, and there a new town popped up. Some survived. Some didnt. Few are thriving. Just pull up a map and follow a rail line in the great plains region of the usa. Then just measure it out. Its impossible to miss once you notice it.

Yeah thats how it was here after the reddit fiasco.

I dont dissagree. But for the rest of yall here, the point stands.

Foreign policy is nuanced, multi layered, and gives no shits about your morality. Any of you that boil down the issue to palistine vs israel or race or religion, have no idea whats going on. Two state solutions are just to placate you while wholesale slaughter happens.

This is about power and maintaining it. Always has been. And american, or western dominance in the region as a way to maintain what little peace exists, and not let our adversaries seize that control, is the end sum game.

Im not saying its right. But superpowers and governments do not care about your moral hangups. A hundred thousand dead "someone else" vs a major strategic location means nothing. Appalling, sure, but there is a brutal logic to it.

Is this just our generation's facebook? Damnit.

Well... at least we know how to use the internet i guess.