Happy Summer! What If…?

Sitting in the coffee shop this morning with a friend, we began to wade through thoughts about the state of mind most people are in today; everything from working habits, working places, to vacations, retirements, and deaths of heroes, relatives and loved ones. We cover a wide gamut of subjects and draw the only useful alternatives practically every time we do this. But mostly we hold forth with our opinion of others’ opinions, seriously contending that our opinions supersede “theirs.”

The primary targets today were small items like the subject matter of cabinet positions in our government: Secretary of Defense—I don’t understand the Republican Senators objecting to calling for the draft registration of women. Some Democrat introduced a bill to make it so and the Republican Senators, being led by a non-elected opinion (ex-VP Mike Pence) all object to it, some more vigorously than others. What I don’t understand about their objection is the idea that females don’t fit the objectives of the military draftees the way males do. Wait, what have those of the “fairer sex” been screaming about for 50 years?—Equality! ERA amendment! Same job, same pay! and, “How dare we men say women should not be in combat!!!” 

In all these things the legislative houses seem acquiesced already, what’s wrong with registering the females for the draft which, since its reconfiguration, has not yet occurred anyway? I say sign ‘em up! At least, we would know more about  them, right…or should we only have a right to rid ourselves of the men? When the loss of life from past wars is counted up it is vastly one-sided in loss of men versus loss of women. I study a lot of cities and counties in a multitude of states. There is no town found yet where men outnumber women. A large contributing factor is loss of men from military service. ,,,,Probably I’m failing to remember some salient point about this. But, and if this legislation is like many others, a Democrat will keep introducing such a bill and after some period of years the Republican voices will just fade away and it’ll be voted in at last. Pfap!

Secretary of Interior—Summer started several hours earlier this year, not sure that gives us an extra day of Summer or we whack it off of the back side come September. It seems experts say it actually started June 20, 2024 @ 3:50 pm Central time. Tilt of the earth toward the sun, they say. OK, what do I care. Here’s what I know about it: it doesn’t age me faster, it doesn’t make me younger, and it doesn’t effect my sleep. So, I don’t care.

Back to Secretary of Defense—Interestingly enough for a short conversation today is this fact about a military aid package for Ukraine. I mean, I believe we should help our allies, I believe NATO is a good deterrent to European conflict, I even believe we should stand up to and against Russia. Albeit, is there a lot of sense announcing that we’re sending gobs of Bang-Bang materials to Ukraine while Russia and the really, really “brilliant” kid running North Korea are signing a Nuclear proliferation accord? Anybody who thinks that isn’t provocative to Russia doesn’t know Putin!

The last and most comprehensive study of our coffee table discussions today was about a world in which we live becoming devoid of all plastic products! No more plastics. None. ….what would be the result of that? This may be a Secretary of Commerce debacle.

About 20 years or so ago, there was a pretty loud kerfuffle about Exxon/Mobil, so much so that there were people with T-shirts and bumper-stickers which told us which gasoline to not buy—mainly Exxon or Mobil. A friend of mine was multi-years into working for that giant in the industry and secure somewhere in middle management. I asked him how much he thought Exxon/Mobil would be hurt by such a boycott should it take hold. He shrugged his shoulders and said not at all. He said it wouldn’t be noticeable to the corporation because1.) they produced gasoline for many brands of filling stations; 2.) the bulk of corporate income came from the other uses of petroleum and gasoline was a small part of their income. 3.) Ergo, we live in a world 100% locked into the use of plastics of which almost 100% come from the petroleum by-products and their manufacturers. 

So, what if the world stopped producing the things we now use which are directly and indirectly coming from petroleum production. It would reach almost 20 million jobs worldwide, so pretty sure that would eliminate the livable income for about 70 million people. Roughly the population of the Midwest including Kentucky and Arkansas. What if????

Well, we would probably find several things could work favorably for us. It would be a boon to craft-builders. Think about such things as glass being used again for dishes, drinking glasses, bottles; forms of metals being used for lids, for car parts such as bumpers, trim accessories; interiors of most cars being made from metal and cloth; filter casings, filters themselves perhaps being made from paper; furniture being once again made from wood and metal, mattresses having no foam?? 

Craftsmanship would have to increase mightily just to get us through a year with no plastics. What would that make your world look like!  Imagine combing your hair with metal or bone! Shoes would all be leather again. Cotton production and flax production would once again be flourishing, as would the hemp growing and usage production as an industry. How long would it take to turn us into a strong vibrant and livable economy with no plastics?… Want to?… Should we who think we’d like that start writing to our President’s cabinet to seek support? 

Or do we live with plastics, live with the petroleum industry, live with the internal combustion engine which is the mother of all the plastics in the world and which plastics has outgrown its own mother? ….OK. Now, how do we solve the myriad of problems plastics cause? I think that’ll take a few more coffee table talks, what?

It’s a really great thing that our true answer to this world’s issues is for “the Lord himself (to descend) from heaven with a shout…” and take us to a glorious place where we are given a body “…fashioned like unto His glorious body…” and the military, Russia, petroleum and its plastics will never be a bother to us for all eternity. Amen?

thanks for reading, The Elder