Writer's Grove

I stuck it to The Man

Generally I’m a mild-mannered fella and not given to moments of rebellion; I’m closer to J. Alfred Prufrock than Randall Patrick McMurphy, if you know what I’m sayin’. But that doesn’t mean I don’t long to stick it to The Man when I have the chance. In this case, I have denied him my dollars.

Until recently, we had one of those bundle deals where you get high speed Internet(s), phone, and cable TV all on the same bill. The bill, I noticed, kept getting bigger. So a couple days ago I called the company and cancelled both my TV and my phone. I’m keepin’ the Internet so I can blog n’ stuff. :) Now my family will read more and get called less by people we don’t know. Already I am snuggly in my quiet bliss. My daughter is reading a book RIGHT NOW instead of having her brain liquefied by the Disney channel. And The Man will be denied about a thousand dollars of my money this year. Purrrrrrr.

BUT THEN, in a CRUEL TWIST o’ FATE, The Man got me back. “Ha!” he sneered. “You like to read, do ya? Then I’m going to force Borders into bankruptcy and they’ll CLOSE A BUNCH OF STORES! Try to read now, you elitist fancy pants!”

In sooth I am sad. I know Borders was a hot mess (and may remain so), but damn I loved going into their stores. They smelled good. Paper and glue and ink and coffee from the cafe…heaven. Even if it was a disorganized heaven where I had a minor snit one time because I couldn’t find one of Kelly Meding’s books, it’s still about the only kind of store I like visiting.

The very idea of fewer bookstores drives me to melancholia. There are lots of things we could do without instead. How about fewer gun shops, or fewer payday loan centers?

I raise my cuppa hot chocolate with marshmallows n’ schnapps in a toast: To bookstores! And to sticking it to The Man.