June 21: The Only Thing, Medical Office, Fairy Tale

...You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket.  Nobody'd be different.  The only thing that would be different would be you...

A lot of things have changed for me this week.  At work.  At the university.  I wish my life could be like the little museum display Holden is talking about in the passage above.  Everything stays the same--the Eskimo, the fish, the birds, the deer.  (I won't go near the use of the word "squaw," which, obviously, is quite dated and culturally insensitive nowadays.)  Holden finds stability comforting.  Unfortunately, change happens.  People change.  Holden recognizes this fact.  And, because people change, the world changes.  Every time I reread a book, it changes for me.  The words don't change.  The story doesn't change.  I change.

I didn't work today at the medical office.  That's one of the changes that happened this week.  I woke up this morning feeling like I should be answering phones, putting together medical charts, and responding to emails.  I should have been working, like I've been doing every Friday for the last twelve or thirteen years.  It was unsettling, and I still feel uncomfortable with the fact that I didn't earn any money today.  But I can't change this situation.  I have to accept it.  Deal with it.

Today I'm supposed to provide a fairy tale, since it's Fairy Tale Friday.  I'm not feeling very once-upon-a-time-ish right now.  I feel more gin-and-tonic-ish.  However, I am a saint of my word, so...

Once upon a time, a farmer named Hamster lived on the same plot of land that five generations of his family had lived on.  For close to two hundred years, the Hamsters had raised turnips and artichokes on the Hamster farm.

One day, King Louie drove up in his carriage and said to Hamster, "Pack up your shovels and hoes, peasant.  You're no longer allowed to farm here."

"But," Hamster protested, "I've lived here my whole life.  Farming this land is the only thing I know."

King Louie listened patiently, and then he said, "Suck it."

Hamster and his family were escorted off the Hamster family farm, and King Louie sold the land to a huge, corporate farming conglomerate that converted the farm into a strip mining operation.

And Saint Marty lived unhappily ever after.

The Hamster family farm today...