Don't really know what to talk about, so I'll just type until I think of something here I go what will come out of my fingers malabar chestnut. Scientific name: pachira aquatica. Indigenous to the Americas. How come when people think "tropical" and "tree" they think palm? There is so much more to tropical flora. Don't get me wrong, the world of palms is deep and riddled with amazing... frawns. But there's much more to the world than pretty green spikes.

Okay, that didn't much go anywhere, let's try this again. Ice cream. Mint 'n chip. Creme de menthe. Rum. Daquiris. Strawberrys. There we go. Today I heard a song off of a record that was recorded for a charity. It's called Sweet Relief, and it raises money for musicians in need of financial assistance when faced with health care costs. Their logo is a strawberry but sort of in the shape of a guitar pick. I think that from now on, for at least awhile, every time I see a strawberry, I will think of this charity. That kind of visual association is beautiful in a way. But it's also the basis of advertising. Marketing is all about reminders and obsessive thoughts about brands and goods and services that can only be quelled by buying the damn piece of crap whose logo floats around in your head or whose theme song you can't stop humming. And one will remind us of another, and before we know it, we've got a shopping list on our hands. Our culture is full of these cross-associations where one thing signifies another, and it's all meant to make money for someone. Thankfully, we know how to maneuver through this deluge of signs. Sometimes I wonder what someone from another time period would think of this world. If, say, a pilgrim walked into a Target, I don't think she'd know up from down. Depressing how convoluted the world has become? Possibly. It's easy to say how beautiful a simple life would be. But about that maneuvering. Aren't we kind of awesome for getting through it all? I think it's quite an accomplishment of us as people, as members of this culture, to look through it all and see what really matters. We are discerning people who realize the brevity of life and how our priorities don't necessarily match up with what we encounter on a daily basis. It's like we're seeing with two eyes: one looking in front of us, and the other looking at what really matters. Err, humans do have two eyes. But we're looking different things at once. We look at what is in front of us, but our peripheral vision keeps track of what is real.