Hobocamp

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

This morning on the subway, I was reading my book, texting, drinking coffee, and putting on lip gloss simultaneously. I multitask like this pretty frequently, and it explains why there are rose-colored smears and coffee stains on most of my clothes. Nevertheless, I noticed that the man to my left and the woman to the right were both eyeballing me surreptitiously, trying to get a look at my bookmarks.

I have a habit of picking up pamphlets for anything, anywhere. I like to pore over them to see if the medical malady, political party, or religious affiliation advertised is something I DESPERATELY NEED/HAVE in my life. It makes for an odd collection of reading material, which I also recycle as notepads, place holders, etc. So I shouldn't have been surprised when people were a little caught off guard by my pamphlety bookmarks today:

1) Seborrheic Dermatitis And You
This one has a person standing, all lonely-like, up against a blue-tinted brick wall. The phrases "redness and scaling," "oiliness of the skin," "cradle cap," "seborrhea," "causes," and "treatments" dance around his head like so many flaky Sugar Plum fairies. If the pamphlet happens to dangle open, enticingly, like it was today, you can also see close-up illustrations of the man's struggles with Seborrheic Dermatitis. He has face dandruff and eye dandruff and ear dandruff. (Some of the pictures are posted here.) Really, this is a good one. You learn a lot.

2) The Only Hope for Peace
This one was handed to me by a man wearing a Jews for Jesus T-shirt. I took it readily because I knew that was going to go somewhere good. This pamphlet is done cartoon-style (I guess to lure in the kiddies) and shows different examples of peace in people's lives. In one particularly disturbing drawing, people in one house are saying "Ahhh, finally I have some peace" because their younger, party-loving neighbors at long last silent. In actuality, they are silent because their house is on fire and they have been burned to crispy bits.

This sounds like a spiritual path to which I can subscribe! Who's with me??

posted by A Lover and a Fighter at 7:52 AM -

2 Comments:

At 12:46 PM, Murph said…

I like lighting things on fire. And I'm indifferent to pamphlets. So I guess I'm in.
At 5:33 PM, shmifter said…

an interesting fact.... i grew up with the people that founded jews for jesus.... interesting