"I HIT A QUACK!"

The other night a rather odd incident took place on the outskirts of Fresno, it didn’t make the papers and to be honest it hardly resonates in my mind at this moment but I feel it should be noted. What is it that we place value on in this life? Money? Luxury items? Image? What about life in general? Or do you have a price for that too? A few days ago I was in the car when a, not the driver but still a part of the equation, when the car I was in struck a duck who had been curled up on the middle of the road. It was about 3am and we were on a road far from where traffic flowed heavily, so to say this was a “dumb duck” I think would be unfair. I mean, technically this was a classic example of suburbia hell moving onto the turf of animals who were still unfamiliar with the boarders that had, unbeknownst to them, been laid down right through what I’m sure was their usual habitat. Needless to say the duck died, despite our desperate attempts to rush the poor animal to the animal hospital, which if you can imagine was located at an unreasonable distance and the only one open at 3am.
This whole thing got me thinking though, what’s it all worth, our lives, where are we going. If a tree falls and no body is around to whiteness it, did it really happen? Or if a simple duck is struck down in its prime, by an outside force, does it matter? I know we can not compare the life of an animal with that of human, mainly because there are just so many opinions on whether or not animals even have souls but doesn’t it matter in some way. Isnt there some sort of butterfly effect, is there a point? If this little seemingly meaningless duck counts for not, in a universe so vast and majestic, then what could anyone of us ever hope to matter in the greater scheme of thing? Where are we going? And why aren’t we concerned about it now? I know we have religion but most religions are of the cafeteria sort where everyone is picking a choosing the bits they want and for good reason but nonetheless if this is the case then what the hell is the point? I have guilt over this duck… and who knows maybe its got a family out there that misses it. (don’t know the sex of the duck, didn’t check lol so that is why its being referred to as “it.”)….


The other night a rather odd incident took place on the outskirts of Fresno, it didn’t make the papers and to be honest it hardly resonates in my mind at this moment but I feel it should be noted. What is it that we place value on in this life? Money? Luxury items? Image? What about life in general? Or do you have a price for that too? A few days ago I was in the car when a, not the driver but still a part of the equation, when the car I was in struck a duck who had been curled up on the middle of the road. It was about 3am and we were on a road far from where traffic flowed heavily, so to say this was a “dumb duck” I think would be unfair. I mean, technically this was a classic example of suburbia hell moving onto the turf of animals who were still unfamiliar with the boarders that had, unbeknownst to them, been laid down right through what I’m sure was their usual habitat. Needless to say the duck died, despite our desperate attempts to rush the poor animal to the animal hospital, which if you can imagine was located at an unreasonable distance and the only one open at 3am.
This whole thing got me thinking though, what’s it all worth, our lives, where are we going. If a tree falls and no body is around to whiteness it, did it really happen? Or if a simple duck is struck down in its prime, by an outside force, does it matter? I know we can not compare the life of an animal with that of human, mainly because there are just so many opinions on whether or not animals even have souls but doesn’t it matter in some way. Isnt there some sort of butterfly effect, is there a point? If this little seemingly meaningless duck counts for not, in a universe so vast and majestic, then what could anyone of us ever hope to matter in the greater scheme of thing? Where are we going? And why aren’t we concerned about it now? I know we have religion but most religions are of the cafeteria sort where everyone is picking a choosing the bits they want and for good reason but nonetheless if this is the case then what the hell is the point? I have guilt over this duck… and who knows maybe its got a family out there that misses it. (don’t know the sex of the duck, didn’t check lol so that is why its being referred to as “it.”)….


it was this type of duck... and did not get run over by the tire and die right away, which probably would have been better. It looked like it had broken its neck and died as we tried to rush it to the animal hospital. : ( we have come to refer to the duck as ducky ....

Getting old, ain't it a b*tch...?!

I recently came into contact with a person I hadn’t seen in about six years. Its funny how time can change people, if it doesn’t get a hold of who they are and warp that slightly, it takes a tight grip upon their youth and exerts its power through taking the shine from their skin or the gleam out of their eyes. I experienced this yesterday; I saw the gray that had taken over the whole person that was my stepfather who I hadn’t seen in years. Granted he is only my stepfather in the sense that he is married to my mother, he had no hand in raising me or anything, but non the less he was a person who I knew well and who I knew when he was quite vibrant and full of color. My stepfather is a truck driver, something he said to me after I saw him for the first time and was unable to hold back my surprise at how he had aged, “Its not the years, it’s the miles.” He said this in his heavy Tennessee accent that anyone else who was unfamiliar with, would have no idea what he’d uttered, but having spent two years in Tennessee and am more than capable of understanding the thickest of accents from just about anywhere. More on the topic of getting older though, I got to thinking about “the miles,” that which can age us more than just the passing of time. Contributors to “the miles” would be children, debt, manual labor, death, serious injury, failures and even success;” it appears as though just about anything can make you age faster than perhaps you were intended to. Its amazing to think that from the moment that we are born, our internal clock begins to tick and from that moment on we are on a one way road that leads to the unknown but non less inevitable out come, death. We are all destined to die, even now I type my thoughts out for you and you read word by word, second by second, our body’s are continuously breaking down, we’re aging, completing a cycle that we have no control over, nor do we fully comprehend why or to what end our souls are racing towards. Although this isn’t a blog about the unknown and this isn’t a blog about death, I simply seek to draw attention to the present. Our current existence, which I personally feel I sometimes take for granted. My youth, when will it be my turn to look into a mirror and say “Where did the time go?” when will you find that you no longer can run a lengthy distance or take on a hard days hike. Everyday we have a new opportunity to cease the day, but do you?