If I had to boil 2020 down to a single phrase, I'm pretty sure WTF now?!? would be it. The way this year is shaping up, it's looking like People's gonna people sums it up best.
Seems like it's hard to go more than a day or two without hearing or reading something that makes you wonder what is really going on in people's heads.
It's Friday and that means I'm rambling on again with the #fridayfreewrite. Feel free to join in the fun, just use the tag and write about whatever comes to mind. Today's edition is accompanied by photos from last month's Kentucky State Fair.
The photo above was a sight that stopped me dead in my tracks and I had to snap a photo. A carnie concession stand selling Jesus seemed a bit at odds with the drunk adults and screaming kids carrying on around it.
For some reason it reminded me of the missionaries that used to come in to the area I grew up to 'help us pore Appalachians'. Similar sort of hubris I reckon. Anybody else ever have run-ins with missionaries?
At least the ones I've encountered loved to tell you what you ought to be doing or what they were doing for you but none seemed particularly interested in what you might actually want or need. There was one, the Christian Appalachian Project whose 'help' consisted mostly of giving us Southern Living cookbooks, McDonald's happy meal toys, and the most garish green nail polish I have ever laid eyes on.
I still haven't figured out what needs this was supposed to address but we made the most of it. We used the toys for 'experiments' which mostly determined that happy meal toys aren't nearly as flammable or easily destroyed as one would expect (they survived the fireworks and BB guns but not the .22 rifles or being doused in burning acetone). Turns out hideous nail polish makes great gifts for people you don't like 😎 I'm pretty sure the cookbooks just got regifted to people that didn't know about the racket.
My dad has a saying, "Sometimes life teaches the best lessons". In other words stay back and let people make their own mistakes. The hard way is a harsh but surprisingly effective teacher and lets you avoid the resentment that comes with telling someone no. Judging by the covid wards around these parts there's a lot of that going on these days. Can't tell it once you get away from the hospitals though.
Hurricane Ida brought us some much needed rain earlier this week and then moved on leaving us with some cooler and much more pleasant weather, gonna have to get out and snap some photos while it lasts. There's a farmer's market I've had my eye on that I'm hoping to finally make it to tomorrow. Anyone got any big weekend plans?