An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend.

When your Knees Boggle and Ships Leave you in the Dust

[Sha’Tara]



Reading with attention to detail for the funny and the odd and listening to songs with discernment can be quite entertaining. Here’s a couple of “doozies” from today.


From SF writer Ben Bova in “The Dueling Machine”: “Fear took over – his knees boggled.” And from a song in my MP3 player, “Did you think I wouldn’t be there? That I’d turn this ship around and leave you in the dust?”


When I read that, and heard those words, my knees didn’t boggle, but I certainly did a double-take until I realized that’s the marketplace, where ships can leave you in the dust and your knees can boggle because money says so.


I realize it’s politically incorrect to engage intelligence when consuming pulp fiction (in any format) but aren’t there limits?


Just because somebody stuffed it in the fridge doesn’t necessarily mean it’s edible or digestible. That’s why we also have other senses, such as sight, taste and smell – to test the stuff before we swallow it!


Or have we reached the point predicted by SF writers some 50-plus years ago where we can no longer use our physical senses?


Where we have become so desensitized that we need labels on everything, in a half-dozen quasi-official languages, giving us a breakdown of ingredients and best-before dates?


Where we need to check the internet before we watch a movie, buy a music album or read a book, and if the ratings are good (never mind WHO writes them!) we buy and consume, convinced it was a great thing because we were programmed to believe that?


Where we need vehicles equipped with dozens of fool-proof computerized gadgetry mandated by law to save our brain-dead lives when we smash onto an oncoming truck on the freeway while talking on the cell phone or use the street corner power pole for bumper testing at 80 kilometers an hour?


Boggles the knees and buckles the mind, that does. I just hope I can stay ahead of the dust when I take the kayak out tomorrow, that water is pretty high about now and if the wind blows, look out for those dust devils!