Slatternly Behavior

We are in the business of watching selves endure the places they live in. Some places are better than others, and some frailties are more fragile than others. For instance, my friend who went to Norway recently tells of tall Blonde Teutonic Godmen among the people there, and these walking deities do not have any trouble enduring their environments. They make their environments, molding – shaping – redefining them – and then they cash their checks that the government doles out after collecting oil lease money. These examples are like evolutionary privilege bootstrapping itself again and again and again, until coal’s become diamond.
Other selves stay stifled in landscapes without redemption or second-chance iconography, much less Nordic fecundity. These lesser souls don’t live in deserts or suburbia or the haunted regions of Norman Mailer’s mind. Some live in trailers with little yellow Tonka trucks strewn across the lawn and green Ninja Turtle pajamas hanging out to dry on the line, but just because you can see that doesn’t mean you have any idea what the story is. That’s what I’ve come to realize, at least.