Green Banana's

I can tell when it's getting to be time for me to write another blog, for days now I've been hearing internal dialogue's going on in my mind... phrases turned, concepts tried, meaning sought. I chose this title because of a phrase my father used to say in reference to his health "I don't even buy green banana's anymore." There's something comical to me about a person seemingly having so little sensitivity about their own eminent mortality. It's as if whats of the greatest importance is to engage the other person by means of "truth telling" or "gallows humor." It also reminded me of our current economic malaise, the whole de-flation thing. Banana's are normally about .69 a pound (green bananas) But if you wait for a short while, they bundle them up on a tray and sell 'em for a quarter a pound! They say they're "over-ripe" but I've never thought so, they're actually just right and the price is right too! Why should I care if somewhere in Central America a banana farmer has to lay off a few workers or cut the wages of some others because I wouldn't pay .69 a LB for banana's?



Over Ripe Bananas .25 .LB


(these are the banana workers)

What am I trying to do, guilt you into paying full price for some bananas?

No, I'm just using the banana story to illustrate something I'm sure most of you already know. That for every person who holds the clean end of the stick...(well you know what that leaves)

Also, to try to give a real life example of what each of our choices or actions say about what we really think is going on.

How about the consumer confidence level? Given the uncertain nature of our economy, right now may not be the best time to spend money on new big ticket items or take on long term debt. Many Americans are only spending on necessities and are putting off the"wants" in favor of the "needs." Still others are of the opinion that our current economic cycle is precisely that. That there's little cause for serious concern. To quote a late great elder statesman, one Frank Zappa, who in a song by the same name playfully mocked American people by saying, "It can't happen here!" (please,check it out) What can't happen? That our highly prized way of life could rather suddenly go by the wayside...

It certainly has "happened" to me!

I find it to be the height of coincidence that my situation has so closely paralleled the bigger picture of our country, not only in the last few years but in the years since my birth in 1960. So if you're looking for someone to blame I suppose that'd be me... I witnessed the American family becoming less relevant than the self, providing the proper mindset to embrace the rising drug culture as my "religion" in the 1970's. I was flush with the fashion in the conspicuous eighties, doing my utmost to consume enough "whatever" to keep the wind from whistling through the hole in my soul. It's a lot harder than you think to be tragically hip..

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you no one told you when to run you've missed the starting gun...(Breathe-Pink Floyd)

A great ironic hallmark happened to me in the 1990's, supposedly I was "over the hill" chronologically. But due to my years of drug use I was emotionally still a child in a lot of critical ways. Before this decade was through I had had it all and lost it all, I faced the new millennium sober for the first time in my adult life. I was a 40yr old "Green Banana"

A brave new century, and a new life! which seemed to me to be about putting out fires and exorcising the demons of the past by living "politically correctly" in the present. A plausible theory if you don't start any new fires which can harbor new demons. We all must eventually confront our own frailties and understand our own new limitations. I became old early in February of 06' when I slipped and fell on some wet steps. It was more than my rotator cuff that shattered that groundhog's day morning, it was my invincibility. Sort of like my own personal "twin towers" moment.

They say it's a recession when it happens to someone else, but it's a depression when it happens to you.

My last full time job prior to being a school bus driver ended on 07/07/07...
I was blacklisted in the trucking industry when a former employer lied about me to the driver "advocacy" council, (legally libeled)
By December of last year I was behind on my mortgage and looking to put my home on the market...(I'm still in my home by the grace of God!)
By April my car had been repossessed, (which made me eligible for food stamps) and my pastor provided me with one that was donated to him.
I went "belly up" on my credit cards, owing about 7-8 thousand dollars, I've gotten a lot of phone calls but nothing more than that.
I "survived" for months on money I made selling vegetables I grew, fresh eggs, and stuff I owned that I sold as well as some small odd jobs I took on.
I turned myself in to the authorities in August because I was unable to appear in court on contempt charges related to my child support and spent 10 days in jail, I was deemed too wealthy to receive "free counsel." (I was released on 08/08/08)

Naturally, I had to chuckle when they announced in late November of this year that our country was in a recession.

There's something comical to me about a person seemingly having so little sensitivity about their own eminent mortality.

My father passed on last the summer before last, now it's me that doesn't buy green bananas.