Well, there I waited, stalking my prey as even a Basset Hound would an unattended hotdog plate at a family reunion. And I tell ya, just before I could do something so pettily blasphemous he's gotta get up to go to the restroom. And in that moment, I gazed up towards the heavens thinking to myself, "I see what ya did there." I mean, sure, I still gave the little black bag a firm little four-inch nudge to the left the second he was out of sight, but I didn't have to do it covertly while everyone was in submission to the Lord. So, what's the take away here? God works in mysterious ways? Naw, that's been way too overdone. That everyone should give everybody else at least four inches? That's good. I mean, everybody is always up in everybody else's business, and just a little extra space makes the world a better place. Again, good but not great. Do we often think we know suffering without considering what suffering really is? Yup, that's the ticket! 'Cause regardless of what anyone's thoughts may be on organized religion, church, afterlife, theism, &c. I believe we can all agree on one thing. The image of a person griping about cramped setting while there is literally an effigy of someone nailed to a cross no more than twenty feet ahead speaks volumes about society today.

And if that weren't bad enough, while two vastly different situations, both individuals are making pretty much the same face. Now, while I really hate to be the poster boy for this, there is a point here (come on, I did refer to tight seating as my family's "plight," and y'all didn't even catch that). But, I guess what I'm saying is that if you feel life is squeezing your behind a bit too tightly (inappropriately?) then maybe, just maybe, consider what folks two thousand, a thousand, a hundred, y'know we will just do fifty, fifty years ago might have endured and what it really means to suffer. And, perhaps, then you'll really, really start to figure out things aren't that bad. And lo! As a wise philosopher once spake, “Don't grumble, give a whistle,” Lenwood S. Sharpe, Director Lumberwoods, Unnatural History Museum Parts Unknown, The Woods, U.S.A.