Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

Humans - A Disappointing Lot

Alachua/Toronto

Owls were hooting in their trees. Spanish moss dangled from their perches. All else seemed still as I trekked this early darkness. Sesa and wife Madhu Mati shared in dosas and sambar (a south Indian fare) at Anil's place before my leaving for Jacksonville Airport.

At the departure gate a CNN screen revealed the attempted seige by rebels against Gadafi. I was intrigued, concerned and worried all at the same time. What a fighting crazy world! Fellow travellers at the gate sitting at the departure lounge took little or no notice. Perhaps the American public is desensitized. I wondered if people are still in the vacation mode. Their own personalized screens appeared more relevant.

People! People!

I had a look at "The Columbus Dispatch". A comic caption and picture sparked some inner giggles. One bear talks to another while on-looking at two nighttime campers. The bear says to the other, "OK... I'll admit they're kind of cute but I still say their herds need to be thinned."

Another article by writer Kathleen Parker perked up a standard issue I have about people and their use of language. Oh, how pure mantras could use a debut in people's lives! Here's an excerpt from her article:

Scene: An elevator in New York Presbyterian Hospital, where several others and I were temporary hostages of a filthy-mouthed woman who was profanely berating her male companion. His attire (baggy drawers) and insolent disposition seemed to suggest he was her son.

Every other word out of the woman's mouth was a two-word expletive that starts with the word 'mother'... The elevator doors opened and we, the numb majority, were able to escape our too close quarters, but not the diatribe, which continued unabated down the hallway, through the exit and onto the sidewalk...

Her exit and our release were accepted with silent gratitude, but I have been fuming ever since because, though she was gone, she didn't really exit our lives. She managed in those fleeting moments to make a mark, to alter our lives in some way. A vile invader, she made coarse and unlovely a period of time that was not her own. What gave her the right?...

I was in the hospital that day for the birth of my great-niece. There's nothing like following the intimate miracle of childbirth to make one wish for a gentler world...

Good behavior is nothing but good manners, simply consideration of others. Recently out of vogue, manners get hauled out the way most people attend church - at Easter and Christmas time. But manners aren't just gray haired pretension practiced by smug elites on special occasions. They are the daily tithes we willingly surrender to civilization.

And so, agreeing with Kathleen about the reckless direction humans are taking and how it became confirmed by the foul teenage mouths in front of me at Canada Customs. I repeat again, "how pure mantras could do a debut in people's lives!"

The hooting owls sound superior to humans. I wont suggest thinning the herds but some form of education about RESPECT could go a long way.

12 KM