True fables of our time

Prayer crosses for sale at Walmart

I’m writing a fable. Well, I have as story in my head that may come out as a fable – I’m toying with it. The story kernel I have is that one day in the not too distant future, the world wakes up to find it has happened! The Rapture.

Come on, you’ve heard of it. At least from Tim LaHaye’s bestselling Left Behind novels and now his appearance on talk shows saying that President Obama’s socialist policies move us closer to Apocalypse. And that’s if you didn’t get lectured about it as a child getting brainwashed in Sunday school.

Of course, that story’s been written. But here’s the catch – it turns out there’s been a slight miscommunication. Whoever received the visions that inspired the Book of Revelations missed an important detail. It’s not about the Christians.

In my Rapture, the world wakes up one morning to gradually discover that China, and much of Southeast Asia, are virtually empty of people. Empty of honest, hardworking Buddhists. Ahem. Ahem. And my working title is The Day Walmart Died.

And having that in my head makes me see everything in that context. Weird, I know. But I’m going with it since news these days is a perfect fit for the genre. As they say, truth is stranger than fiction.

Fine films I’ve never seen

In the continuing effort to catch up and watch films that make people gasp and say “You’ve never seen _____?!” when I tell them I haven’t, I watched “The Graduate” last night. Yes, the famous film with Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft that is so iconic that, even though I had never watched it, I felt a sense of deja vue with most of the scenes and a lot of the dialogue.

“Do you want me to seduce you?”

Morning Java

The scene here at Jumpin’ Java: 9am Sunday morning. To my right, two gay guys having a deep conversation – one a muscly shaved head bruiser and the other younger, with a black mohawk in a motorcycle jacket. At the counter in front, a girl ordering wearing a hoody pulled up over her head, with a ballerina tutu poking out at the waist, over gray tights. To my left, an out-of-water hipster in a look that may become the new skinny jeans: a black trench coat and stovepipe hat.

Meanwhile, more people park their dogs outside while they pop in to get a coffee for the stroll. (The weekend commuters).