Written for the electronic reading system known as the internet.
You will know, reader, that I have a few websites constantly updated (added to?). To date, they probably make you laugh and/or cry. All well and good. I am reasonably certain that that was my goal and purpose therefore.
But I was thinking today about what I read. For instance, today I picked up a biography of Augustus and an almanac by John Hodgman. But this is how I fuel myself and continue to write on my own. It occurred to me that in this way I am nourished. Fed and sated on knowledge so that I might make something worthwhile for someone else to read. Think of it as a reading food chain (not a literary food chain).
There is a problem however, with me, a link in this chain.You see, I read to get smarter, by and by. Or simply to try my mind at some heretofore unexplored style of thinking. You, reading me, on the other hand, are more or less swimming in excrement.
This is OK, as it happens. What is any song, poem, film, or play but someone else’s life laid bare? So be it. But I have decided to educate you as you read me. You as my reader will, on occasion, be forcibly made to open wide and receive your enlightenment. It will be prepared well, I assure you.
All of that said, here is your first dose of UNDUMB.
Why? Because you need it.
INVOLUNTARY PARKS.
It turns out some of the most impressive places of refuge for wildlife are largely the result of humans being dumb.
Say you had yourself a merry little war with your neighbor, who is problably a communist. You both have the same weapons and nothing can be decisively accomplished by either side. You call a truce.
Truce doesn’t mean you like the guy, so you both agree to take a few steps back from property line. Neither one of you will get any closer than that, lest you sneak up on one another.
And there you have it, weeds etc. will grow between you and your neighbor because you don’t want to get too close to him anymore.
This has happened the world over: cf. Korean DMZ, The former Iron Curtain in Europe, Greek/Turkish Cyprus DMZ, and the little known DMZ between the U.S. and Canada.
UPDATE: I was told there’s no DMZ between the U.S. and Canada. Turns out the border is just really boring.
