HJCotton.net

I passed this on some random road in New York state last winter. After thinking about it for a minute or two, I drove back to snap a photo. With Columbus Day approaching, I figured it would be a good time to share it. Kurt Vonnegut provides the caption.

“1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.” – Kurt Vonnegut

I know that not everyone understands why I see extreme pessimism as having comical value. Just my personality I guess. What I’m posting today, however, is not my own writing, but rather a quote from the “Smoking Man” aka “Cancer Man” from the X-Files.

“Life… is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. You’re stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there’s nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while, there’s a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they’re gone too fast, the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits, filled with hardened jelly and teeth-crunching nuts, and if you’re desperate enough to eat those, all you’ve got left is a… is an empty box… filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.”

How very, very true. Well enough with the negative thoughts! The Twin Lights Ride in New Jersey is on the 25th. 50 miles and the proceeds benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. See y’all there.