Bubbie's World View

Uncle Bubba sat scribbling on a wrinkled paper, his mind adrift as he gazed out the window.
"Whatcha writin'," I queried.
"I was wondering if there is any place left in the world that people haven't seen," he said thoughtfully.
It seemed rhetorical with the quiet tone of his voice, but then he continued.
"So I was sitting here killing time and started to jot a few things down. I did a little research on figures and do you realize that a persons linear field of view taking in the circumference of the earth can see about 3 miles? Their angular field of view for binocular vision is about 120 degrees. So it would take three people standing back to back to see 360 degrees. The area of that circular field of vision is 28.37 square miles. The earth’s surface area is 57,500,000 square miles so using this formula: 57,500,000/28.37 = 2,026,788.86 X 3 = 6,080,366.58, we see that it would take about 6,080,367 people to see the entire area of the earth."

Todays current world population is 6,875,936,198, so if we divide that by 6,080,367 we'll find that we could see it 1,131 times over. Doesn't the world sometimes feel like a small place? So why are we fighting?

Kentucky Ladies

Uncle Bubba has spent the the entire summer in eastern Kentucky working in the hills and hollers. Arriving in late Spring he has witnessed a turn of seasons and a turn of circumstances. It's late October and he is putting the wraps on another job well done. He has several more weeks before returning home to his Sweet Pea but now he sits in the breakfast area in the lobby of a fine Lexington hotel. Sitting alone he slurps a sip of his hot black coffee and attempts to keep his early morning mind clear for soon enough it will again be hard at work. Try as he might, he can't help but to overhear one of two women who were sitting close by. As his gaze falls upon them he notices that their mere appearances represent the two distinctive flavors of Kentucky women. The woman sitting at the left was angular with her tresses of charcoal gray hair coiffed in a late 1940s or '50s style, bowed up high and rolled back from her high cheekbones, straight slender nose and chiseled chin. She was natural and sweet and sat straight upright while casually nibbling at a muffin while her more pretentious friend on the right sat expounding about the images appearing on her iPad. Her chatty friend was a petite older woman with short blonde, very blonde hair. She had dabbed on a little makeup and, though casual, donned designer clothes. She chatted incessantly about Facebook, Glen Beck, that O'Reilley fella, and Nancy Pelosi. Her rapid fire repartee triggered a thought in Bubbie's sleepy mind. In the past few years he has spent a fair amount of time in hotel lobbies, diners, restaurants, and bars and has noticed a split in the topics of talk depending on similar characteristics.

There are a lot of folks in this still great country that live in much the same way as our rugged ancestors. They work hard everyday and come home to care for their family and home. They survive, doing what they must do and in doing so they try to find some modicum of joy. If you strike up a conversation they speak of the weather, not just in passing but because they have to deal with it; it effects their work, their crops, their weekend plans, or how much money they'll spend fighting it. They share stories of their families and kids. They'll tell you about their day or how great a man their granddaddy was; they may even interject comments about the Lord. They almost never talk about Facebook, Beck, O'Reilly, or Pelosi; that seems to be the loquacious mantra of the upper middle class. But then again one would have to have something to lose to vehemently worry. For as much as technology and TV are useful tools, they are also used even more by the average American as entertainment. Oddly, we've forgotten that. We've stopped thinking for ourselves and swallow everything hook line and sinker. In Bubbie's view, the good old USA was stronger when folks were natural, polite, used common sense and thought for themselves.

Extraordinary Courtesy - Life or Death on the Road

Uncle Bubba has had the occasions to drive many, many miles over the past few summer months; from the deep south of lower Alabama up and down Highway 65 to Chicago, and Highway 75 from Florida to Kentucky and back several times. Aside from the beauty of the American landscape, the one thing that most stands out to Bubbie is the total lack of courtesy. He remembers a time when there was a phrase of "common courtesy" but what was once common is now extraordinary--and not in a good way. The risky and dangerous driving maneuvers that people make at any instant are stunning in so many ways. First and foremost is the fact that they are willing to wreck their vehicle, other's vehicles, physically maim or kill men, women, and children to get one place ahead in a line of traffic; such an inconsequential achievement with such potentially tragic results. No one, and that means no one, will slow to allow another driver in line. Everyone's first reaction is to stand on the gas and speed up to pass. If you are overtaken by the urge to be courteous, and for that matter safe, and you yield to another you'll inevitably be punished for mile after mile by the person behind you tailgating until they can pass you coming as close to hitting you as possible just to make sure you get the message.

Add the fact that people do not want to slow down in a construction zone, or pull over while passing a stopped vehicle on the shoulder, cut each other off at the gas pump, honking their horn moments after a light turns green and racing for a parking place, and you'll see just how rude and self-centered we truly are. In Bubbie's view, we are who we are before we get in a car.