Brown Bag Day

Brown Bag Day

A lot has changed since I was a boy of the 1950’s.  All of this comes to me as an environmental thought that keeps getting recycled.  Not sure if I want to go into this at anything but a surface level.  It is a little unsettling that the earth has spawned so many people, and in the years that I have been alive, every corner I stand on has unique problems all its own.  Of course I am looking for a common place to start, then realize this will be posted on the internet, which has global reach.  Local and Global encourages me to write and post, with certain limitations at the conscious level warning me to accept with graciousness, all comments that attach themselves to this blog in the coming days and perhaps beyond the years I actually have left on this planet.  Mention that, because I have no idea what the average lifespan  of a blog posted in July of 2014 might be.  Complications multiply and there are so many things about writing about private matters and posting them in cyberspace that has me still learning about the pro and con of doing all this.  For today’s amusement I have decided to not over-think things.  Will start with a brown bag.



Woke up late.  Went about things as if I didn’t have a care in the world.  Relaxed and displaced from the very things that most people deal with each day.  Did not seem to be weighted down by the presence and psychic energy of others.  Stayed in, then found the courage to go out.  Out of my personal space and onto public streets.  Took in some air, and didn’t choke.  Didn’t become anxious due to others and the urban density that surrounds me.  Had no storefront or lunchroom anxiety.  Stayed out as long as it pleased me, no time limits imposed.  No sense that I needed shelter and should scurry back to my quarters for safety’s sake.  





And so it was that I was into a leisurely morning that seemed to be free of the shackles of self-imposed everything, allowing me to enjoy the moment without actually having to think about my next step and where all of this was taking me.  A little background on the motivation for writing this blog.  Having a good day, and decided I should count my blessings, expand my base and with resources secured, share a little time with you.  Of course,  local and global could influence how we share this moment, but like I mentioned, not over thinking any of this.  Will peace/piece it all together, working with the materials at hand.  In this case I just reached down to pick up some littler on the street.  Found it to be a brown bag, which easily found its way into a trash container 20 feet away.  But out of hand, did not mean out of mind.  Carried the thought with me, and when I sat down to drink some water, take a little weight off my feet, and glance at this computer, I realized something.  Brown bag means one thing to me.  To you, a brown bag may not be something you see or deal with.  This idea put me in a special state of mind.  Now I find myself writing a blog, which I reserved for once a month status.  Had all but shut down.  Don’t get excited.  Don’t write.  Stay to yourself.  Become self-contained.  Blogging can become a nasty habit.  Just last month I was thinking like that.  Was not sure why I had given so many years to the blogging habit.  So made a decision.  Once a month.  But here I am.  Broke into a new circle of awareness.  Decided that if I had something to say, I should write.  Inspired by a brown bag.  I will continue on.



Came back from a leisurely walk.  Washed my hands.  Spontaneous action.  Brown bag pickup, and now I needed to limit the contamination from picking things up on a city street.  " Wash your hands."  Back in my safe space.  Still clean and friendly, in a self-questioning way.  " What I have I done?  Will people still love me?"  For a moment, I was on the edge of an anxiety state, unspoken panic attack.  Unrehearsed and unleashed.  Fear of rejection and perhaps banishment.  But then I looked around.  Took a deep breath.  Nothing had followed me home.  Home alone with time on my hands, and my hands were clean.  Did nothing that would change my state of existence and jeopardize the ways things are for me at the local level.  It was just a brown bag, and it found its way into my day and was on the path I walked.  No harm done.  And for that I am grateful.



Came home.  Walking through the lobby, decided to check my mail.  Found a key in my post box, and that doesn’t happen every day.  With curiosity I added to the moment a genuine excitement.  Its been years since I have had an unsolicited package delivered to me.  Turns out it was delivered using The United States Post Office’s expensive $15 priority mailing box.  No hint of who the sender might be.  Huge box.  Had no clue what might be in it.  No sense of who sent it to me.  What to do.  Open it and then like with the brown bag, wash my hands immediately?  Wasn’t sure.  But was by myself and had to make a decision.  Was having a good day, so did not want some global effect of danger being everywhere ruin the day I was having.  Opened the bag.  


  
And to my benefit it was Seattle Seahawks NFL Season tickets.  Huge box.  Small item.  Made me think that somebody had a moment of grandeur at my expense.  Tickets to allow me into 10 football games.  Probably added $25 of expense to the activity of getting into a public stadium for a football game.  But then I decided, don’t over think any of this.  Seattle had just won The Super Bowl in 2014.  Extension of the 2013 season, and now its big time presence and exposure.  To me its just a way to get into the game.  But now I realize, huge box.  Flat tickets that could have fit into an envelope and with a $1 delivery rate, reach me in time for the first preseason game, and I would have been happy.   Local and Global.  Small event becomes gigantic, and I am not sure why winning A Super Bowl in February of 2014 should bring on such pomp and ceremony.  But for me it was all the same.



Picked up a brown bag.  Instantly washed my hands.   Opened a huge box with season tickets in it.  Instantly washed my hands.  And will have several months to decide what it is going to be like for the rest of this year.  Last year they banned the nap-sack and book bag.  Had to carry all your stuff in a clear plastic sack the size of a gallon Zip Lock Bag.  See-Thru.  Exposed as if the contents were a clear and present threat.  And so it occurs to me, Super Bowl Champions of the NFL in 2014.  Will that be a problem?  And is when I decided to sit down with my bad self and write this blog.  1950’s state of mind.  Small boy with his dad going to a football game.  And now before I can do anything, I have to take certain precautions.  Wash my hands.  Sanitize my surroundings.  And I tell myself.  " 2014.  Brown Bag Day.  Season’s Tickets Arrived.  Be happy."