31 Mar 2008

Little Birdys

Spring sprang today, or at least the Robins in my yard think so; I’ve always trusted their judgment more than the weatherman’s.
I spent a day at the mall just recently. I watched the people there wander from window to window with that look in their eye that said, “I wish I could have that”; not many folks were there for any other reason. The change has been subtle and it seemed to happen over night, its like many were buying things to satisfy an underlying anxiety that they weren’t aware of; an anxiety that led them to gather and store as a way of finding comfort, just to awaken to the real danger like a cobra’s silhouette just came into focus for them. They aren’t spending all of a sudden, but they are looking around them at the fact the others aren’t either. We walk around the mall with our hands in our pockets, not because those pockets are empty but because we can’t afford for them to be – the trust is no longer there, it went away with the mesmerizing blindness. We watch as the store fronts close one at a time after that all to brief and idle time with the “Going Out of Business” sign out front. Nobody is surprised, they felt the sand start to shift quite some time ago, it just wasn’t going to be theirs – so now they are not so sure.
It’s all in the beginnings if you pay attention to them.
I heard a speech on the economy yesterday, or maybe it was the day before. I don’t remember much of it, the only thing I took away from this one was that, clearly, virtually no one is listening anymore. If you think back over all the wobbling top spin that these speeches have evidenced over the last six or eight weeks it’s pretty obvious what the reasons are for the disregard this noise is getting. It amounts to people not looking – a perfect time to get away with things that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
Another strange side effect of this change in mentality has been the disappearance of the “If I’m quiet no one will notice” trance that I see standing between people right next to each other so often. I see fluttering eyelids, I see casual conversation drifting into talking talk with complete strangers; this is something I haven’t seen go on where I live for ages – and going all the way around the room like a murmur at a magic show – odd in the extreme.
So a little bird told me – the times they are a changing.
There is a world of difference between folks that are frightened and confused, and folks that know what they are afraid of – a world!

⇑ by Rick Silletti in Opinion