I am convinced that somewhere on our planet lives an evil genius. He probably lurks in an underground lair deep in the bowels of an active volcano (evil geniuses seem to prefer those kinds of places), where he and his cronies do nothing all day but design wrappings for products found all over the world.
I bought a tie out cable for Telly, our trusty canine companion, the other day. A relatively simple device, 20 feet of cable covered with a red plastic casting with a metal clip on each end. I put the package containing the cable on the kitchen table until Telly and I were ready to go out for our daily yard adventures. I puttered around the kitchen until Telly reminded me that it was unwatering time and bushes to be visited outside. I got my hat, Telly’s leash and the package with the cable in it and out we went. We made our traditional cruise around the yard until Telly ran dry, then we went over to the picnic table where I had left the package. It was bubble wrapped, Thick plastic on both sides with the cable trapped inside. I tried to rip it open, no luck, it was hermetically sealed around all sides. I tried to break through the bubble with my finger nail, the bubble didn’t break, but the finger nail did.
I began to realize that this was some kind of Lexan or a similar bulletproof material. I pulled out my trusty Swiss army knife and cut around the edge inside the hermetically
sealed edge. It still didn’t come apart because it had been stapled in two places. I pulled the staples and lifted out the coil of cable. I wasn’t done yet, there were three heavy duty cable ties that had to be unwound before the cable was finally ready for use, all this for a cable that would spend its life lying in the grass and dirt of the lawn.
I got to thinking about all the unnecessary packages we use and the layers of protection we have that maybe aren’t really necessary. In the market the other day I saw a package of six oranges on a foam tray sealed in plastic wrap. Don’t they come with their own wraps- like bananas?
Driving home in and still having a nice little ponder about the way we layer protection, I thought back to my cars' far distant ancestors. They looked like buggies with open wheels. Folks got tired of having mud thrown all over them and we invented fenders to protect us from flying debris. We then painted the fenders to protect them from the elements. We undercoated them to protect them from mud and salt. We then clear coated the fenders to protect the paint and then we waxed them to protect the clear coat we put on to protect the paint we put on to protect the metal in the fenders we put on to protect us from flying goop.
I wonder how many layers of protection that evil genius has because someday I’m going to find that lair and bubble wrap him. Life will be simpler and the world will be a better place.
Thought for the week—“It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.” --Jerry Seinfeld
Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.
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