Making Things Worse

I've done a couple hours of yard work, which I understand makes things worse.

I didn't hack off any further limbs this weekend, just pulled some weeds that were about a foot high and trimmed last week's branches to fit more in the bin. While yanking and cutting the weeds I realized I was reducing the total of plant life on this planet, furthering global warming.

If I remember my high school biology, these living green plants take in carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen. What happens to the carbon is a mystery to me, but I guess it stays with the plant for a spell, eventually being consumed in a fire by man and released back into the atmosphere. Or, consumed by ants, which may fart a lot, but I think that affects the ozone, not global warming. In any case, carbon dioxide is pretty good for fire extinguishers, but not so good for the animal life.

While engaged in this limited destruction of earth's ability to sustain animals, I realized that my efforts to be environmentally good are often subsistent to some lesser good, such as my home's appearance. That's when I started thinking about how many "truths" or "rules" I had exceptions for, and I think we all do.

I tried to think of any non-tautological, meaningful truth that all humans subscribed to and ended up empty. I don't think we all believe in *anything.* We certainly don't all believe killing is wrong, and I wonder how much longer it will take for us to reach a consensus on anything. We've had several thousand years already, with little to show for it.

I was thinking maybe the developed countries were on a path ahead of the undeveloped ones, but then I got confused trying to distinguish between the two. The developed countries, I guess, are the ones where people can mostly read, can surf the Internet and look for boobies or oiled, hairless men chests, and where we work for others in exchange for commonly agreed upon means of trade and barter. The undeveloped ones are those where people directly struggle for food, shelter, and water, where they farm using natural methods, and die by the millions through starvation and disease.

This is what I think about when I do yardwork. Also, before I quit, I began wondering about which I find more distasteful: descriptive laws or proscriptive ones. Is it more restricting to be told I must wear a bathing cap or to be told I can't bring a bottle of beer to the pool? Society is a very weird concept. We group because being a hermit is horrifying, but we spend a lot of energy telling each other how to live and think. What we each, individually, hold dear is what we want others to agree is the proper way to live. We argue, not to learn, but to foist our beliefs on others, and end up with millions of laws telling each other how to live.

I just wonder if this was a necessary result of civilizing.


I continue to be blind to the holes in my writing. I've studied some, both in classes and reading, and have some suggested ideas with which I agree or that make sense when I read them, but I never follow the most basic of instruction when I write. I guess I hope that my writing style will be so charming that people will forgive the lack of realistic characters, the omission of answers, the unexamined, shallow treatment of many of the features of writing that make reading so enjoyable.

So, I continue to wordsmith, in lieu of actual writing.