Suburbia

This weekend I had to go pick up a script from Walgreens, but not the one I usually go to on 10th. No I had to go clear over to the one that is over by Kohl's on Cornelius Pass. Okay, it's not really a big deal, it's only a couple of miles over there, and there are some other stores over there as well, so we can kill a couple of birds with this one stone. But I still didn't like it because that area, newly built up, epitomizes everything I hate about suburbia: landscape trimmed to within an inch of its life, wide sidewalks that no one walks on, gently winding streets full of people who couldn't get out of the way if their life depended on it (all charter members of the anti-destination league I'm sure), wide expanses of new asphalt paved parking lots with lots of free parking for places I have no desire to go, and lots of stores full of useless stuff that I neither want nor need. Tell me again why we are over here? The place is like the ultimate product of soulless corporate hucksters and government officials protecting you from yourself. I hate it.
    But then I had an epiphany. The entire construct is just a tool, a tool to distribute consumer products to consumers, and it does that very well, and that's why it exists. Hating it is like hating your hammer because it has a red handle. The color of the handle has no impact on how well it does it's job.
    Tools are used to build things, so my next question is: what are we building with this tool? Near as I can tell we are building the next generation of soldiers to continue our fight in the war against the rocks, which is basically what life is, right? Rocks are the very opposite of life, they don't think, they don't care, they would just as soon crush little rocks as big rocks. So the mere existence of all life on this planet, all life anywhere, is a blow against our rocky oppressors. Right now we have a little breathing room. We have walked all over this planet and pretty much pounded all the rocks into submission. Oh, there are still a few upstarts here and there that give us some trouble from time to time, but things are generally quiet. However, that could change in a heartbeat, so we best be getting prepared for whatever the next calamity might be. Because you know another thing about rocks? They never give up.

P.S. On our stone's throw we were walking down the sidewalk in front of Winco (a local monster grocery store) and a kid pulling a train of grocery carts crosses our path. No big deal, right? He'll have his carts across the sidewalk in a few seconds and we'll be on our way. But then I look to see how many carts he's got and it must be a zillion. There's some kind of motorized tractor pushing them along. It's like a freight train, and just like a train it gets halfway in the building and then stops. It's just a hiccup right? They'll start rolling again in a second, but no, they don't and we have to venture way out into the parking lot (a dozen steps at least) in order to get around this thing. I suspect the grocery carts are in league with the rocks.