FROG BOIL

Everywhere the frogs were boiling.

But appearances are deceiving.  Everywhere, the same routines were being run.  People went about their daily activities hardly noticing anything was amiss.  You would have thought it was just another rotation of the earth.

But this was different.  A different kinda heat, a different kinda day.  I wondered if anyone else was noticing as the temperature was rising to intolerable levels?  Nothing on the TV news about it.  Just the usual buffet of sugar-coated donut holes.  Hot air 24/7.

Everywhere I looked, consumers were consuming.  Consumed by something they deemed important enough to spend their time at, I guess.  Yet it was noticeably strange.  Everyone was busy yet they accomplished nothing.  Trading their lives for “stuff”.  Stuff they didn't need.  Stuff you'd see them later sell at a garage sale. 

And everywhere, the frogs were boiling.

Somewhere, someone was making rules for everybody.  Stirring the pot.  A recipe for disaster. 

I noticed that the rule-makers seldom abided by the rules they made.  It's like “their rules” are for everybody else.  I wondered why anybody listened to them in the first place.  Some people just take it upon themselves to tell everybody else what to do.  A bonfire of vanity for sure.  Someone pointed out there really are only a few rule-makers compared to everyone who is supposed to follow their rules.  This fact gives me hope.

Then there's the group in the middle that enforce the rules.  There's not that many of them either, but they too get off on throwing their weight around.  Apparently, they think they're really important, what with all the shouting, shoving, and forcing they do.  I wonder if they're like that at home?  I know I don't want them in my home!

Out in the streets the heat is getting oppressive.  Some frogs are exploding now.  Without warning, BLAMMO!  You have to watch out that you don't become part of the collateral damage.  It makes no sense that they let themselves heat up to the boiling point and go KAPOW!

I think one day, that a group of folks are just going to say “NO!”  They're going to stand up for themselves, for their families, for their rights, for the hell of it and stop conforming.  It'll be like ants marching.  Like salmon running.  Maybe a stampede in Slo-Mo!  It will be a mass walkout on the rule-makers and enforcers of the rules.  Who made them King for a day anyways? 

Probably, somewhere, a guy just goes “this ain't worth it!”  “This is crazy!”  He shouts to no one in particular, “I'M FROG BOILED!”  “I'm going home”, and out he walks leaving his co-workers looking at each other.  Then they think to themselves, “You know, Joe's right”.  This is crazy.  And they get their things together and go home too.

One becomes two, and in turn becomes four, becomes eight, becomes sixteen, becomes thirty-two, and the next thing you know"an entire town goes home.  On the way home, they go get their kids out of school, call their spouses and call it a day.  They call their friends and family members and tell them what's going down.  Soon, entire cities are going home.  It spreads across the country, across the nation, maybe to other countries.  People talk to their neighbors, and marvel at the camaraderie and freedom they're feeling for the first time in a long time.  This FEELS GOOD!  A spontaneous celebration breaks out, and humanity exhales fully for the first time in a long time.  Finally, yes finally, folks are doing something sensible for a change.  They stop playing by someone else's rules. It's the only way change is going to come --by acting sensible.

The frogs stop boiling.

The rule-makers are scared.  People have stopped listening to their lies, and they're not following “their” rules.  They call their enforcers, but they went home too.  What to do?  They're boiling now!  But nobody is listening to them anymore.  The power brokers go limp.  They're out of a job.  They may go to jail or worse. 

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