how did i come to this astonishing conclusion? empirical evidence. only the human species wears foot coverings. I could have said underwear or peaked caps. you catch my drift. only homo sapiens are ashamed of their bodies, with good reason.
let's not go there. maybe there is a chickadee making raincoats. I don't want the fact to blow my whole thesis. after all, the question of what makes us human matters to everyone who reads. and there's the first genuine gold clue. a chimpanzee wearing glasses might look like my neighbor (unquestionably). i still have yet to see one open the mail and burst into tears. chimps don't get bills.
karma? does it matter? yes, not in the next lifetime but in this one. our deeds add up. and there's the platinum part of our answer to our question. we collect garbage. not only that, we create it generation after generation. we call the repositories books, formulae, science, libraries, porn stores - and the energy mounts. no one has to reinvent the hydrogen bomb. we've already got it.
symbolic language, the erring, inexhaustible source of history and the microwave oven. every generation adds more litter to our knowledge of the past. newborns soon learn to read old newspapers and begin writing new ones. the smelly laundry mounts, adding infamous fascination to the pile. i possess more lethal energy than a rattlesnake: my car. and i'm glad of it. even though my faith in my ability to control it far exceeds my ability to do so.
look at these pictures of the fire burning near my tower, a kingdom lost by the lighting of a match. no, my own life completely out of whack. like unwashed dishes in the sink, i keep collecting my creations for future generations. ah, the poor kids.
the chips fire, expected to go to 32 thousand acres, now 16. http://www.pbase.com/wwp/chips
you can follow the progress of the conflagration here: http://inciweb.org/incident/3052/
