YESTERDAY I ACCIDENTALLY FOUND the end of the world. I was coming off the Interstate on my way home from visiting my daughter. The exit ramp brought me to a stop light at a large intersection that was filled with vehicles, some moving and some waiting to move. All four of the corners were packed full of parked cars and trucks and lit up like the entrance to Dante’s Hell, if Dante had known about neon. All four corners had gas stations and convenience stores, the kind of places where you can spend $3 a gallon for gas, $8 for a pre-packaged sandwich with a drink, and take your chances in one of those dreadful public restrooms, the stalls without doors, or doors without locks, or locks that you doubt function as hoped, and the floors always wet, the toilet paper dispensers empty, and the flush function terribly inadequate. People come and go in these places with a glazed expression and rumpled, mismatched clothing that have “Made in China” labels on them. In short, as I said, I had found the end of the world. Fortuitously, the light turned green and I was able to keep going, on to the safety of home, a secure distance from the day of reckoning.
HenryM