When I was a kid of 11 or 12 in northern New Jersey, the crowd I ran around with spent a lot of time pursuing three things: fishing in what I now understand was a toxics-laden pond near a chemical plant, seeking alcohol, and seeking cigarettes.
We quickly learned that the best place to find cigarettes was on the ground around the bus stop, especially the bus stop that hosted express buses to The City. People would light up, the bus would come, and they'd drop the barely used cigarette on the ground. We found many long butts to finish off. Germs and overall grossness just added to the frisson of the search.
When I was a teenager, I found myself on the other side of the transaction. I learned that the surest way of getting a bus to NYC to arrive was - in my extreme cool, with my 20 cent pack of Camels - light up. It seemed like the second I dropped the Zippo back into my jeans, a big smokey bus would lumber around the corner.
This morning, after hours of non-responsiveness, the Weather Underground that I posted about a few minutes ago re-appeared. The salt marsh weather badge showed up within seconds of my posting about it being gone. Clearly, I have some Special Powers: the incredible ability to restore missing items, from buses to weather reports, that I write about.
So I'm going to keep up my lucky streak, and mention to you that I notice a lack of patient and kind humility among us humans, and a sad substitution of hollow materialism for a sense of connection with our exceptionally gorgeous world. Like posting about the weather or lighting up a cancer stick at the bus stop - maybe those New Year wishes will soon become real.
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| Happy New Year from the Salt Marsh Vigilance Committee |
