“Though I’ve always loved Wendell Berry’s poem “The Peace of Wild Things,” I often lament (at the same time as I understand) its movement away from the human, and one night after reading it I heard these words:
Poem by Joseph Fasano
I try to keep hoping.
I keep telling myself that something can be done, something must be done, and it rings and rings in my head when I cannot sleep at night…
inwardly debating if I should get up to go to the toilet
( as it so often happens roughly around this time each day)
or if I should just go back to sleep for another half hour
( because it didn’t feel like I had to go that badly.)
The house was dark and quiet, with no one else awake
( but me, and only partially so )
When suddenly
Alexa*
Blurts out:
Oh, hello! So glad to have you here!
At volume 8.
Entirely unprompted.
.
.
.
You’d best believe that I was lying there, chest pounding, and * fully awake* wondering what in the hell could have brought THAT on
Only to see the green glow of the device lighting up AGAIN
Hello! So glad to have you here!
And I seriously thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest.
Damned creepy technology…
*shudder*
~~~
I have read so many horror stories of voice assistant tech going off unprompted at the strangest times – and yet, this is the first time that it has happened to me.
😱
*catches breath*
*unplugs all smart devices*
_______
*(that ubiquitous voice assistant technology that I begrudgingly refer to as ‘the faceless woman’ )
20 years ago, I worked in a supermarket, and worked in the produce dept for close to a year, and I’m not gonna lie — of all the PLU (Price Look Up) codes I typed in daily/endlessly – that 4011 PLU for bananas is the only one I’ve never forgotten 😆
Either *sometime* today (9/23) or sometime tomorrow (9/24)
[Or perhaps, even the day after that on 9/25 — which also strikes me as totally appropriate as a fan of Douglas Adams, since 9/25 is a Thursday ]
But considering the way that things have been going in the United States and the world at large — resulting from the various forms of political, environmental, and cultural chaos —
I will admit that I personally would look forward to the world ending for the following reasons:
My life hasn’t been going all that great – thanks to some increasingly debilitating medical issues affecting my physical, mental, and emotional health
And hey, isn’t all this what is supposed to happen at the Autumn Equinox? How appropriate would that be if the whole world ended at the exact cosmic point in the year when one is spiritually tasked with letting go of all spiritual and communal detritus that limits individual and community growth to make space for a world that is new and better?
However, the ironic icing on this proverbial cake is that I look forward to this apocalypse simply because I’m scheduled to serve jury duty on Wednesday, September 24th, 2025, at 7:30 AM.
Before anyone comes for me, while I’ve long felt that jury duty is an important civic duty that I have always felt honored to perform as a citizen of a free and just society…
I hate to say that for the first time ever, I don’t want to serve jury duty simply because I am fscking tired *
I am physically, mentally, and emotionally overwhelmed by those first two stated reasons (three if you count the impact of overall US/World chaos that has been having on *everyone* right now)…and honestly?
Yes, I am exhausted in mind, body, and spirit.
(As is everyone else, obviously (*gestures at well, all of the world right now*))
So, all I’m saying is, maybe we should embrace this one.
Because it certainly feels due.
~~~
But I know that ultimately, it won’t, as tongue firmly planted in cheek, I present you with this little truth…
Oh, it’s definitely been more than 5 times for me – I was born in the 70s
So, yeah, folks, as a tired, frustrated, spent nearly 55-year-old human being living in this post-capitalistic hellscape…
I say
Bring
It
On.
So, to all of those armchair prophets and evangelical preachers: I can’t be the only one asking you to STOP with the predictions and the promises!
As well, though I know I’m at the risk of being slapped upside the head, I have a request for my sweetest friend and most patient teacher
Please please…End it already, won’t you?
Because I feel ready
#readyforRagnarok
_____
*Not to mention that for some bizarre reason, I have been summoned for jury duty (in Florida) every freaking year for the past five years. (All civil/local cases) Though, this time is the second time I’ve been called this year because this past March was a civil case (which was cancelled at the last minute) but I have been selected to serve on a federal jury on 9/24 — but if I am selected, I can’t be summoned again for two years, thankfully. So, while I’m not tired of serving, I am sick of being summoned so often 😒
bloodteethandflame 