Monday, April 07, 2008

Dollar Weakness Bright Side #17: The Virtues of Hitchhiking

My (late) Mother was an eternal optimist. Or she at least always put on a brave face in front of her children...at least most of the time. Even today, one of the first thoughts of her that I conjure in her memory is that of Eric Idle, atop his crucifix jollily singing...

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.

So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
And so it is with America and dollar weakness. Something good can always be conjured out of something errrr ummm less good, if one only seeks the silver lining. Today's Bright Side of dollar weakness is that Hitch-hiking will soon return to fashion. And this will be good since it is a fun, social, and environmentally worthy way of getting about, that diminished in popularity for no apparent reason except for excessive wealth (and perhaps fear of axe-murdering, gun-toting drivers). Now though, with Charlton Heston dead and soon-to-be-buried, gun control, like a non-cynical energy policy, might have a better chance of adoption than it did yesterday.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lots of bright side to look at as America plunges into poverty. I've enjoyed the good times as much as anyone, but I miss the simple things from before the perpetual boom - life before cell phones, laptops, dvd players, the internet, cheap cars, cheap airfares. It is all so much impoverishment, "all a show", and we would do well to let go of these childish things and return to a life of the senses, immediacy, the sufficiency of our own bodies and the presence of other people in our lives - return to a life of true richness.

Anonymous said...

I'm optimistic too. Moses can't be really dead!

Anonymous said...

Don't get your hopes up. Charlton will be replaced by Ted Nugent.

CB

"Cassandra" said...

I thought Ted Nugent was a crazy Canuck?

Anonymous said...

Just make good on your promise that your eldest gets
the edition with the "Judean People's Front" bits left in.

Anonymous said...

Nosiree! He's a tried and true Michigander. You're confusing him with David Frum.

CB

"Cassandra" said...

CB - He must then hail from the U.P. I had a university roomate from New Canaan CT who got thrown out of boarding school and who's mum thought a hiatus on far-removed from well... ummm ... everything would do him a world of character-building good. Ha Ha Ha Ha !! He introduced more drinking games to the school than prairie dogs in South Dakota.

Anonymous said...

You got that right. He spends alot of time shooting stuff in the panhandle.

I see you've moved. Was it something Cristina said?

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5007.3288.0.0

CB

Anonymous said...

Sorry Cassandra!

I watched to Ted Nugent in Badalona (close to Barcelona in the 80's), because it was so 500% out of legal noise in that concert, that I put a couple of smoking papers in my ears. For nothing.

I remained deaf for two or three days. It was insane!

He opened the concert crying out "I'm from motor city, I come from Detroit".

Today he shouldn't cry out so high! It seems that Detroit it's not what it was, though they complain about Toyota and all!

Sad times, for all of us in this island called Earth!

koteli

Anonymous said...

Hitchhiking? The gains from walking and bicycling should be even better. Another great possible gain if the US goes broke is that Americans, and especially children, will have to give up all the strange medications the government pays for. And that would end a large part of the violence in American society nowadays.

Better living through depression therapy.