If you watch a twisted piece of metal on a string, you'll see that when the wind blows it's hard to tell whether the metal is moving up or down. It is an illusion. The metal is just moving, not in any direction. Yet, as humans, even watching this simple motion of a summer mobile, we cast judgment upon its movement.
"It's definitely circling up."
"Nope, that thing is making it's way down. Like it wants to drill through the earth."
This speaks to the power of the lens through which we view, well, everything.
I sometimes can't help but think that the human lens is the fatal flaw, that what we see is inconsequential compared to the way we see. I am a naturally suspicious person. I'm using "natural" very loosely here because it isn't natural that through my life (as I am sure is the case with most people if you ask them) I have been abused, abandoned, disappointed, lied to, etc. And so, through this f*cked up lens, I see my brothers and sisters. Mistrust is at the helm, followed by assumption....you get the point. I want to wear a sign, one day when I have the guts, that says something like "I am a kicked puppy, please ignore my teeth and the way my eye twitches."
I think I'll start by taking the glasses off.
This is a darkly humorous bit about life as a rural mother and freelance writer in Western Massachusetts. Little Appalachia, if you will. The title, I feel, clearly reflects how life is coming at me like an overloaded freight train, and my own ridiculous response to it. Me VERSUS all; teenage children, people who want me to work for free, conservative government, food karma, weird menfolk. You'll either laugh, shrug your shoulders, or call DSS immediately. Happy reading.
thus the expression "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade", hard to do if life doesn't also give you sugar, sometimes sugar is harder to obtain,but it is on this planet somewhere for all to find
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