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Lately, it seems, so much can happen in a week, sometimes monumental things that can turn one’s life upside down; one has to wonder if it is bad karma, rancid caramel, Cara Mia Why (you have to be old enough to remember that oldie song pun), or just life. As I talk to other friends who prefer their lives to be as drama-free as possible, I am convinced it is “just life”.
Though I realize from the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and some of the other masters, events “that happen to us” are really neither bad, nor good; but how we perceive the experience. Emerson, possibly the first of the transcendentalists claimed we could more or less train our souls to “let go” of our bodies and look down at what occurs, both “good” and “bad” with amusement. I admire Emerson’s writings greatly, but he wrote them before people got shot with sub machine guns in the streets, and mechanical dental care.
Though I was not shot by a submachine gun, I was shot several times with Novocain, and even under the influence of nitrous oxide, I was unable to use Emerson’s little tricks and did not find it amusing in the least. The pain was as I’d remembered the last time I had dental work. I had to wonder if waterboarding could be so horrid.
Did I mention the fact two teeth had to be surgically extracted and the open wound became infected within a couple of days? So I was back at the dentist last Friday to take care of that issue.
Did I also mention that Dr. Eddy chews tobacco and spits when he works. I keep thinking when he says “Spit”; he’s going to spit at the same time just to make the patient more comfortable. Doesn’t work. He is an excellent dentist and a graduate of the University Of Tennessee dental school back when it was the #1 dental school in the country. I guess he does the tobacco thing to “instill confidence” and “make the patient feel more comfortable”. Perhaps if he’d added a bluegrass band in the background, I’d have bought into the “theme park dental room” but only top 40 pop and country hits played over the overhead speaker system.
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That was not the worst of my week. A very close friend suddenly informed my wife and I she was going into the fur business; which is a big no no with me, my wife, my friends, and hers. We did everything possible to discourage her; that it involves animal cruelty beyond words, but to no avail. Even the fact that the entire country of Israel has now banned the fur trade, Ireland is scheduled to ban it this year, and Harrods (owned by some guy from Qatar) is the only department store that sells fur in London. The market trend tells the story. In any case, we didn’t quit loving our friend, or vice versa, and again, I can’t imagine floating through the air in an Emersonesque way, watching innocent creatures crammed in cages, often skinned alive, and taken to market; all in the name of vanity and hubris. It hurts to discover a friend had such an agenda, didn’t give us a clue, and then went forward with it. She plays the victim at every turn; and possibly is. She showed no signs of a need to be cruel to animals in order to profit until she started an association with a famous singer, now pretty much on her way down; she never made it that big, but now people barely remember her. Our friend is enamored by her and is very successful, for which we are proud. She’s a hard worker. I imagine this will be her downfall, and it won’t be a pretty one. Karamel Korn, karma or whatever is a b****.
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With so much negativity around someone what do they do? One thing at a time. To nip the dental problem in the bud, it was simply a matter of going to the dentist, let him inflict his pain and spit his tobacco, take my prescribed meds, and relax in my living room. Oh, I can work a bit because its at my computer.
How does one handle an animal-killing friend? They simple let-go and grieve the loss of that friend. In a lot of ways it feels like a death in the family, and in other ways it feels like a total betrayal that someone so close to us would enter such a dirty nasty business. Fur is an outdated product and nobody has a valid reason to wear it in this day and time, except to pump up their very low self esteem and overblown ego, and is willing to do so at the expense of torturing animals that are mothers, babies, etc. Aside from feeling like a death in the family, it also feels like such a relief, not having to deal with that kind of deception and insanity. And that is, what it is. Animal cruelty for profit.
My dentist is cruel merely by the accident of his profession and I have come to expect it. He does his very best not to be and sedates me as much as he can while drilling, prodding, etc to make it hurt less. A furrier is cruel merely on purpose, to skin the precious fur off that innocent animal that causes the same kind of pain as if a human had his/her skin peeled off.
A year from now, I will wonder what all the pain was about the week of September 28 through October 5, 2011. I will have a whole new set of issues, problems, etc., and what I’m concerned about today will be but a vague memory. But hopefully, if nothing else, I will have all my teeth intact and in good shape.
And I will be grateful that my beloved wife Lee Hiller-London and I live on the edge of the most beautiful park in the country, Hot Springs National Park, where, by law, not one single animal can be abused, touched, shot, skinned or anything else. When Theodore Roosevelt created the National Park system, he was thinking of people like our ex-friend. He knew human hubris would always exist, and innocent animals with no voice did not have any legal rights or defense against them. Thanks to him, now they do. Our animals, who we consider our friends and neighbors, will have their fur intact for their entire lifespan. And about a million people annually visit to see them and the gorgeous forest that is their home, and ours.
Have you ever heard of one person receiving that many worldwide visitors to see them wearing an animal fur? I didn’t think so. A woman today, showcasing an animal on her body reminds one of a woman walking down the street smoking. It is impossible to tell which is more gross; one just knows they are both very gross. The woman in the fur is simply a woman with low-self esteem, overblown ego, and waiting for Godot. The animals in our forest truly are “What Becomes A Legend Most”.
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Rick London is a freelance writer and designer living in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. He founded Londons Times Cartoons & Gifts which have been Google’s #1 ranked since 2005. His offbeat cartoons site features 5000+ images and his stores featuring funny tees and gifts over 1/4 million items. He also founded Shoes That Amuse, the world’s only famous love quotes shoes and gifts.
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