May 31, 2012

On my way to eat scrambled eggs I saw a sodden purple towel in a parking space. At the diner, my eggs turned into the towel and I could no longer eat.

Outside by the gazebo, I crouched down to photograph a strip of bacon lying in the dirt beside a cigarette butt. Someone came near, picking up litter, and I thought of saying: “Hey. See this strip of bacon lying in the dirt beside a cigarette butt? You see it? Please—please, please, please—do not pick up this bacon. Let it stay. Everything will be all right if you just let it stay. It is within your power to make everything all right. I believe in you completely.”

The person picking up litter said, “I’ve never known you to do a bad thing.”

But, “I am to blame for this bacon and this cigarette butt. I put them here.”

“That isn’t bad.”

But, “I took a shower and toweled off and left the wet towel in a parking space.”

“That isn’t bad.”

I had lunch with the person picking up litter. Our eggs were runny. As we ate, the person picking up litter continued to pick up litter, sweeping crumbs of toast into a plastic bag and gathering used sugar packets off the floor. I perched awkwardly on my seat and snapped photographs of everything.

 
Based on a true story.