Xenosthesia.com

EARTH DAY

The reality is: everything recycles. The only hang-up is when we get these things that aren’t readily reusable, so your local recycling centers will say, ‘no that’s not recyclable,’ when what they really mean is the item you might want to recycle is not within the capacity of their operation. They’re only protecting their own interests. You would too. It costs a lot to remove the less-recyclable from the currently-recyclable.

So what is and what isn’t recyclable? Here are some things usually considered recyclable:

Paper—one of the most common things people send to the three arrows bin, paper can be repurposed several times before the fibers are too fine to be reused.

Aluminium—otherwise known as aluminum, this too is one of the most often considered substances to send for recycling.

Lead/acid batteries—because of tracking and reimbursement programs, these actually have a respectable percentage of being recycled. Nearly 100% of all lead/acid batteries produced get recycled!

Glass—highly recyclable, and yes, green, red, whatever-colored glass can be recycled like the rest.

Plastics—when these don’t get recycled, people often claim they don’t understand the labeling system. It’s not too difficult. Like materials can be recycled together. HDPE stands for High Density Polyethylene. LDPE stands for Low Density Polyethylene. PETE stands for Polyethylene Terephthalate. PVC means Polyvinyl Chloride. PP means Polypropylene. PS means Polystyrene.

Food scraps—one of the least recycled materials, food scraps often get sent off to the landfill. Food scraps make excellent compost. Everything from egg shells to orange peels can be composted and used for gardening, creating new earth, in a manner of speaking.

Calming the Salmon

Deserts exert influence on the riverbed, distressing the fauna. Salmon born early, their birthplace a sauna. Reluctant fishermen catch and release. Release and catch and release again. The whole time the cast was their only plan.

For bombshells and clamshells, honeycombs and honeybells, we take it easy and take it well.

A lifetime in solitude is a day in hell.

You have to keep your mouth closed to tell this tale.

Any man can have a vision, only the honorable will act. It’s all the rage to hesitate, and that’s why I react.

A million years to call your own, with never a space to label home.

The time we spend to keep our place won’t mean a thing if the sun goes nova. Sun worshippers convert now to Jehovah.

Berate the boys for making noise. Hate the noise, not the boys.

A lot has happened since we last met. Our psychic connection relates all which hasn’t…yet.

Contradictory Living

There are those who get to middle school who cry in their sleeves about how badly they miss recess. Sure they do. So why is it when they get to gym class they won’t do anything? They just sit in the bleachers and whine.

Contradictory living.

There’s plenty of that going around.

Some will tell you they will never surrender and the next thing they do is follow a tradition they disagree with to the depths of their heart. For instance, the tradition of lying about your age or your weight. People at the age of 70 or older saying they’re 25, for instance. It’s cute, sure. But is it not contradictory when the same person will be all put out when someone lies to them about something, anything? “You LIED to me?!” So then, is it wrong to lie, or not? Never surrender? Except for that one “little” thing? You’ve got to make up your mind, old man.

How about that guy on the road? You know him. You’ve seen him. He’s passing everyone and shifting lanes. He’s spitting curses at everyone he considers to be in his way, which is the majority. He’s revving up to this one and that one so he can yell at them for the “cut off”.

“You cut me off!”

Then the next car.

“You cut me off!”

He isn’t only contradictory, he’s dead wrong. Nobody’s cutting him off. They’re all minding their own business while he’s driving up close to their rear end. Weird habit.

Finally, there are those of us who want a way out, but we do nothing to get there. We think we’re in prison or something. If so, it’s a prison of our own making, a prison of our own mind. None of us are digging tunnels to escape though, are we? We just keep on living how we’re living. Contradictory living.

If You’re A Man

When you’re a man and you get slapped, your first response is to apologize.

Sometimes it sounds like this, “I’m sorry. Did I hurt your hand…with my face?”

To be a true man means you don’t retaliate. The first thing a child does is start swinging, try to get in a couple of shots, try to “even the score”. The childish mindset will sometimes even try to find vicious ways to get revenge when the other person isn’t looking. The cowardly way of children who pretend to not be hurt, but hold a grudge anyway, is contemptible.

An adult male, otherwise known as a man, will have matured beyond such petty psychopathic responses. The mature male will apologize even if he doesn’t know what he could have possibly done wrong. Even if a quick mental review of everything he did in the past few hours seems legitimately good, he’ll say he was sorry, knowing full well there’s more harm in holding the apology to save face than there is in bringing on potential embarrassment.

A real man cares less about his own feelings than someone else’s emotional state.

A real man doesn’t think insults are a form of humor.

A real man defends women and children.

Real men will tell you how it’s going to happen long before they hit you. “Listen buddy. If you go on talking crass that way, you better get a plastic bag to hold your teeth.”

“Wait, what?”

“Because I’m going to knock them out.”

“Ooooh.”

Yep. And another outcome, generally, if a couple of mature males happen to lose their tempers and lose their mature cool and start hitting each other, is that they’ll have more respect for each other afterward. Scientists the world around haven’t been able to discover how this works, but it does.

So just back away and let them work it out the way only men can.

Park Yourself

…out where few can find you. Where survival has the greatest appeal. Where your car can’t go.

Park yourself, not your car. Find yourself in desolate places with beautiful vistas on every hand. Out where influencers have no influence. Where it’s more evident how nature rules.

Sit still and let the beauty surround you. Let the beauty become you.

Turn under the sun. Once every hour, until you’re done.

Not baked, not fried, only done.

And when you return home, don’t forget the places you’ve been, remember them with your photographic memory. Recall them whenever you need a break from the crowded city streets, or from the onslaught of opinions and criticisms.

Right there where you parked yourself, in the quiet lonely places.