in the sun i feel as one (or the sun smells too loud)

written by Sam X.Strawberry
edited by Lisa P. Donaldson and Martin P. Stuffedshirt
originally published in Popular Mechanics, October 32, 2008.

Reprinted here w/o permission. Song Lyrics and Titles listed in the title of this article were definitely used without permission as a singer of one perished long ago, and obtaining permission for the other requires learning the language of the Scots which seems much to difficult for a man of my intellectual limitations.

Thought about the sun some this morning on the drive to work. It was impossible not to as it was directly in front of me making it incredibly difficult to really see or think about anything else. I figured if there were cars in front of me I would be able to see them at the last second which would give me more then enough time to swerve into the guard rail. Luckily I made it to work without having to smash anything.

As I was staring directly into the sun, burning whatever is left of the parts of my eyes that are needed for seeing shit, I thought about one of the last things Kurt Vonnegut ever told me and that was Mother Nature was trying to abort us. With a summer of record 100 degree days and a winter with record levels of wind, cold, and snow (Eds. Note: Not really a record in either case as the world is older than 150 years old or however long humans discovered how easy it is to terrify the masses with the news), I had gone what felt like months without seeing the sun. But the extremes made me think Vonnegut was right.

I leave before it rises and I get home after it falls. Sure I have a window at work, but Mother's Nature plan of death required that the sun lurk behind the clouds for weeks at a time to let the ground slowly freeze during the day so when we leave our posts we'll slip and slide to the depths below.

So to see the sun this morning, and to see it loud and clear, was a welcomed site, despite the fact that I was operating an expensive piece of machinery that is considered one of humanity's greatest creation as it not only gets us from here to there, but it also plays a part in assisting the sun in Mother Nature's mission of getting rid of us before we get rid of her. Survival of the fittest, in a land of big losers, edges her way, unless it's a see-saw battle because then our collective mass will result in the dangling legs of the other side. If we leave our post it will all come crashing down. Which is what it may come to. Or an explosive vest could accompany the sun one early rising, which would make the nightly descent a memory for the ages.