2004-11-04 | Why Bush again?
Some people think Americans are stupid. A daring assumption! Or not? Can you generalize it that easily? Looking at the recent presidential elections, one almost has to say: "Yes!"
Who would’ve imagined the American people let Georgie keep on ruling, after all that has happened? What is so great about this man who likes to choke and faint on pretzels, or who believed that Al Quaeda was a pop band? Is it his tenacity in the war against terror? He has already lost two towers on the battlefield, but at least his pawns were able to reclaim a warhorse from the enemy. However, Bush wasn’t able to defeat the King himself so far and there are still so many more men on the field you can’t attach a face to. Four more years of Bush, this will be a tough match in which every move has to be well considered and coordinated. Maybe one can even cheat a little when the opponent isn’t watching.
But maybe the American people are also cunningly smart and aim to achieve with the reelection the complete exposure of a man that, without his advisers, is quite helpless and stranded, not to say incapable. Are the Americans fighting against themselves in the end? Where exactly is the terror indeed?! Is there something hiding in the Bush we all don’t see yet? Be that as it may, for one party there’s only one final outcome: "Checkmate!"
2004-07-16 | Why me?
Finally I’ve gathered everything from the grocery list and queue up at counter 4 to pay. Only 3 people ahead of me, that’s great because there are more costumers at the other counters and I’m in a hurry. But suddenly, at costumer 2 of my line, the cashier has problems to scan the magnetic code of a can of peanuts! After seven futile trys, she has to search the product list for the price in order to type it in manually. There’s nothing mentioned about peanut-cans on the list, my adrenalin level is rising! The costumers at counter 3 are just rushing through and it seems they pass me a malicious smile!
My hands enforce the cramped pressure around the shopping cart handle. A staff member is being called. Only after minutes one is coming but doesn’t know the price by heart and has to go look for it in back of the store first. Drops of sweat are standing on my forehead, my legs start shaking. I am captured in this line, can’t go to the other counters, as already 3 people are standing behind me. Captured in this irony of fate, once again chosen for being the winner of the ass-card! Why me?!
Am I just imagining it or is it true that anytime there’s a chance for bad luck, I am its lucky winner? The day before yesterday I had forgotten to carry along the car documents for the first time and promptly I ran into a roadside check, which had never happened to me before. And why is it the metro’s doors always close right when I’m almost inside? Nasty!
The strange thing is though, many people say the same about themselves. But I never see it! Never can I say: "Duh, bad luck, guys!" Or
do people simply not realize when they are lucky? Come to think of it... right before I got the last free gap at the car-park!
My feet stop shaking. Wow, hadn’t that been luck? After all I might have had to search for hours and hours more. My hands’ pressure around the cart handle loosens. Yes, that had been a lucky moment indeed and I had even been happy for a second, but then forgotten completely about it! Perhaps that is the exact problem: We remember the bad moments easier than the good ones. Or we pay less attention to the small moments of luck in our daily life!
«Hey, move on, will ya?!», grouches the person behind me in the line and tears me out of my thoughts. Everyone in front of me is already long gone and the cassier is waiting impatiently for me to put my groceries on the desk.
2004-06-02 | Why are we We?
Sometimes it sucks to be human. The older you get the more responsibility you have, you need to earn money to survive and you must try to fit into society, perhaps you worry or are afraid of the future.
Looking at the culm next to my foot or at the goldfish in the garden pond... what problems do they have? The culm gets its food anyway, stands together with millions of friends and gets to enjoy every single sunny day. Rain and snow don’t bother it either. And the goldfish? They also get the food shoveled into their mouths, blubber and lead a quiet life in the water. Or the cat! The connoisseur as such. All she has to do is eat, sleep, be caressed and maybe hunt some mice just out of boredom.
I am neither a culm, a goldfish nor a cat. I am human. You, who are reading this, are also human (I suppose). And why? Who decides on that? God? Then I wanna know from him why I’m not a cat! Or did we just take the wrong path in evolution, did we idiots follow the path "Human" instead of "Koala Bear" just because of carelessness? But wait, I don’t even like eucalyptus that much...
There are days when I think: Hey, let’s go into the forest and shoot a deer, sit down with it in the municipal park, make a big fire where it’s forbidden to have barbecues, pull the beast’s fur off and prepare myself a nice meal. Furthermore I just take along four beers from the supermarket without paying for them because you are also allowed to pick apples from the tree, right?
But then I remember: No! Human beings don’t do that, that is not appropriate! We are no animals anymore! Thus I BUY myself a can of deer goulash and one beer in the supermarket and during dinner I watch a documentary about the hunting behaviour of african lions. When the throat of the antelope is stuck in the jaws of the lion I feel a little admiration.
Oh boy... sometimes it’d be nice not to be human. However, yesterday I mowered the lawn, did a bit of fishing at the garden-pond and stepped on the neighbour’s cat’s tail while she was just sleeping soundly.
2004-04-13 | Why is the weather so often bad especially on weekends?
You know what it’s like! Working during the week to earn some bugs, being blamed by your boss, sleepily spilling the lunch coffee over your pants, still throwing a frozen pizza into the oven for dinner and good night!
But at last! You feel friday evening coming up, it’s tickling in your stomach! In your imagination you’re already planning the highly desired 48 free hours that the weekend has to offer! Finally go outside to smell fresh air, tan your body in the sun and eat ice cream, perhaps go swimming or piss the neighbor off by mowering the lawn during the siesta at noon. Sounds great!
Saturday morning, you’re well-rested, about to pack your swimming togs and WOSH, the sky turns black and it rains like out of buckets, until sunday evening of course! On monday morning, on your way to work, you get angry that you put on your pullover because the sun is burning on your head at 35 degrees!
Why is it like that? Does someone wanna tell me something? Am I doing anything wrong? But no, otherwise it would be just me who felt like that and yet no personal weekend-rain-cloud is floating over my head. Thus the others must feel the same way! I realize it’s difficult to find an answer to this question...
Nobody is able to control the weather yet, right? (Let’s keep God out of this thought.) So this means I can’t punch anyone’s nose for busting my weekends so many times. Pitty!
What’s the reason then? If nobody is guilty then it must be coincidence! Or is it just me who finds the weather bad? Perhaps the saying is true: There is no bad weather, there are just bad clothes. But how to get tanned in a rain coat? And nobody is selling ice cream when it rains either!
Perhaps it’s a placebo effect? If I believe in something very strongly, will it happen then? Is the reason founded in myself in the end? Should I probably think positive after all and believe there will be extraordinary weather? It’s worth a try, isn’t it? We’ll talk next weekend!