RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,244
(real life, and running with it)
..(part three)..
It's always been a hard line
for me to stay with, this stuff
about people wanting to be
always all-protected. Having
coverage for this or that, and
then having life insurance,
redundant policies for health,
sickness, doctors, and illness.
And, to boot, it's always been
the weakest in those links who
seem always to demand the
most coverage - which most
always ends up with others
paying for it, and them just
taking. I've known people
who wouldn't take jobs
unless the coverage and the
'benefits' were perfect. (I
never understood how a
person could call it a
'benefit' to get something
'back' while being otherwise
shackled and pinned into a
position of subservience to
some other person, corporation,
or entity).
-
That's the way of the world, I
guess. People used to look at
me incredulously as I'd refuse
coverage. My last job, in fact,
caused complete consternation
on that count : eight years of
no coverage, while the company
itself switched carriers at least
5 times, causing confusion to
those who had it. Like a fool,
I never sought the compensation
back for the dollars they saved
on me by not taking their as
offered coverage.
-
I guess I can't hold any of that
against anyone, but let me look
at it in this fashion: my parking
lot friend Randy, say, at his own
fairly modest and 'without' level
of living, has the sort of coverage,
- from Food Pantry stuff to health
coverage, both from country and
from state sources - that I, for
one, could only dream of. And
that's OK, but it's all taken as
a given. Which always confuses
me, as an 'American,' having
been taught and raised in the
fashion that as a 'sovereign'
within the USA it was contingent
upon me to take care of myself,
my own needs. To me, it's always
been part and parcel of life to
keep all the other morons and
moronic organizations as far
away as possible. It's bad enough
that car insurance, homeowner's
insurance, schooling have been
made 'mandatory' by custom
and by law, and no one has ever
blinked, though they still call
this 'America.' Getting right
down to it, 'mandatory' anything
causes problematic issues itself.
-
As I sit there and listen, I get
amazed how the loss of old-line
things just passes and is little
noticed. From what I gather, a
new roadway, or a re-paved road
or a new cut surface where a road
wasn't before, any of that stuff
just gets welcomed in and seen
as an improvement or progress.
Randy likes to note the trucks
that roll by with 'over-sized loads'
bearing sections of modular homes
out being delivered - for new
places in the woods, or for people
expanding or 'improving' their
current lot of a trailer or an old
cabin. (There's evidently some
sort of modular-home manufacture
out towards Scranton, and these
east-bound deliveries (in sections)
usually are seen rolling east
through Honesdale, along Rt, 6
towards their destinations to I
don't know where). To me these
all spell trouble and problems.
To others, it's just cheery growth
and expanded happiness.
-
You can't really discuss any of this
with them, for their discretion does
not have space for the sort of view
I keep - a velveteen sort of Luddite
approach to everything new and
modern. Heck, I have trouble with
drinking out of cans and bottles or
any of those plastic-topped sip-cup
things I see all the fast-food people
always glugging. If it was up to me,
I'd paint the land with a 'disappearing
paint' and brush, and bring it all
back to original. You can have
your ease and comfort.
-
Looking out, with them, from that
little bench we sit at, I am always
struck by the vantage point afforded;
a small hip in the landscape, with
the meager roadway out front and
slightly higher than us. This little
bowl of land, though you'd never
know it from the present-day, has
been through - like the rest of
'Honesdale' the place - its own
list of changes and alterations
over time; industrial and railroad
time anyway. There are two markers
out before us: one is a tombstone
like stone that says this was once
the site of some original Honesdale
schoolhouse - an open field, a
small building, and a budding
settlement. Then there's another
plaque, on a pole, standing about
8 feet up, that proudly declaims
that - also at this site - was once
the baseball field where the famed
Christy Mathewson grew and honed
his skills, before becoming a baseball
giant. (I chuckle as I think maybe
that's where they got 'Honesdale'
from. But, no, it's not. Philip Hone
was a one-term Mayor of NYC who
came out here and got this place
rolling later in life). Again, who's
Christy Mathewson, and no one
of the present day really cares
anyway.
-
(The modular thought-huts
go rolling by...).
No comments:
Post a Comment