Grocery store stream of consciousness

Grocery stores are frightening and demoralizing places when you have no money.

The long aisles of bright boxes and bags remind me of what I’m not worth or undeserving of. I take a box of rice from the shelf because it’s cheap and filling. The box causes a chain reaction of remembrance in my mind.

Suddenly, I’m back visiting Haiti again. I remember just how much the people there relied on rice. I am also struck that no matter what I’m going through, my plight does not compare to those in developing nations such as Haiti and Somalia. In turn, this reminds me that as the world changes, the poorest of the poor will be hit the worst.

Our climate is changing and not for the better. Human actions are the cause of it. Here in the northern climes of the U.S., we are seeing the change as October becomes “Hotumn” with temperatures well in the 80s. As temperatures rise, it is becoming more difficult for farmers of the world togrow rice. Like I said, rice is a staple food in Haiti and other developing nations. That’s troubling enough in its own right, but rice certainly won’t be the only crop or food source affected.  Even seafood is at risk as our oceans have growing “dead zones”…large swaths of water that do not contain enough oxygen to support marine life. A reduction in food sources logically leads to famine and famine leads to political destabilization.

Says who? Why none other than that bastion of lefties, The Pentagon.

Analysts in the U.S. military have predicted that the warsof the future will ignite as the result of dwindling resources and influxes ofrefugees. Think we have a refugee crisis now? Just wait until the sea levels really start to rise and people flee the coastlines after one-two punches of hurricanes and floods.

You know what else will be fun? Disease.

I’m not talking about disease that naturally accompanies famine. No, this is even more insidious. As temperatures rise and permafrost thaws, viruses and germs that we haven’t been seen since the dawn of humanity are released from their icy prisons. “If there are microbes infectious to humans or human ancestors, we are going to get them,” said one expert in an article I read recently. So while dealing with famine and flood refugees in hot or stormy climes, emergency relief workers will also be taxed with responding to contagions.

But we’ll be ok, right?

Well, cast your gaze backward to 2005 and New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People may be, in reality, decent at heart. That is until they are bereft of the basic needs for existence, such as food and clean water. Then…all bets are off. This makes the concern over armed conflict easier to understand. Could this mean a rise in totalitarianism? Re-establish order by any means necessary?

Standing in the grocery aisle, box of rice in my hand, I swear I can see the future. It’s a hot world. Very hot. The environment has changed so much that those of us in 2017 might not recognize it. The weather patterns are extreme and monster hurricanes and tornadoes are more common than not. Hold your breath, by the way. You don’t want to catch the plague. That is if it’s an airborne pathogen. You probably won’t have to worry as much about person-to-person contagion because there are likely a whole lot fewer humans around. After all, nowhere is it written that the future needs people.

Wonder if there’s any way I’d still be teaching. “So the topic for your essay today is ‘ecological collapse.’ Be sure you mention the positives. You know, the up side. Like how much corporations were able to increase profits for their shareholders before it all came apart. Oh your reading for tomorrow is “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury.”

So…yeah. Happy Thanksgiving. Pass the rice. 

Or as the inimitable William S. Burroughs would say...

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