Musings of Wal-Mart

I was pondering today how curious a society is if it is considered bizarre to have basic common courtesy. America is a curious place. I was just the neighborhood Wal-mart buying a gallon of milk and the employees there looked positively glazed over. Every costumer received a half hearted "Have A Nice Day" as they left, and the seemed astounded when some one actually looked them in the eye and gave them a sincere "You Too!" It makes me wonder how many don't even acknowledge those people trying to make a living. 

Later, walking out to my Jeep I was preoccupied with thoughts of the things I wanted to change about my car, thing i wanted to fix, to improve. Parked next to me was a beat up station wagon filled with what appeared to be junk but on closer inspection was the shabby contents of someone's house. A girl not much older than I sat in the passenger seat staring out at the skyline as if it were a road map she couldn't read, a book that held all the secrets that was written in another language. In the back seat another girl lay slumped over on the car sear, ribs protruding in all directions. Their license plate read Washington, but their faces read drug addicts. 

I wonder who it was who sat driver's seat of that car, where they had gone, what they were doing and I wonder who it was in the driver's seat of the lives. Do you imagine as little girls growing up in Washington they imagined when they grew up they'd be living in a car parked in a parking lot in Oklahoma? I hope they are warm tonight.