"It looked as if a thousand or more, standing in straight rows. Their eyes extended upward toward the heavens as though the gods themselves could be brought down through sheer force of will."

...dude.

"Not one within the masses seemed aware of the presence of any other. Everyone stood, thinking and feeling as if they were there on their own, each filled with a profound sadness."

...hey, dude.

"None could truly understand the source of this condition, and they all seemed unwilling to avert their upward gaze."

...okay, seriously. You're spacing out on me.

....What the hell are you talking about, man?

..."Nothing. Just thinking out loud, I guess."

It's 11:55 PM, and I'm trapped within the walls of some parasitic "big box" chain-store/supermarket hybrid.

cornflakes, dental floss, cucumbers

Assess the situation: this is the kind of scene that could really throw you into some strange mental gymnastics if you don't stay focused on the objective.

...cornflakes, dental floss, cucumbers.

Certian activities that are tolerable, even entertaining with company are often soul-crushingly terrible when you're flying solo. You're going to wander around, obviously. The whole fucking place is structured so that you HAVE to wander around.

You've come in for a few basic things, mostly because it's the only place open on this day and at this time of night with readily-avalable fresh-vegetables. Their hope - in the course of your aimless wandering you suddenly decide that you absolutely must have a new TV, or a playstation 2.

More than likely, though, you'll just end up deciding to pick up the DVD of New Popular Movie 6.

"I think I figured it out, man." ...figured what out?

"What I was saying, earlier."

..right. The stuff about the people with their profound sadness?

"Yeah. I think it's a metaphor for something. I can't figure out what, though."

great. So there's supposed to be some kind of vaporous depth to the whole thing, but you have no idea why?

"...Well, yeah. Pretty much."

Now that is a metaphor for something.

"..Smartass. I'm serious. "

So am I.

There's stores like this everywhere. All of them look exactaly the same, no matter where you are.

In the right state of mind, walking into a place like this, you start to lose a sense of grounding - you forget where you are. You're in any city, any place. Any time you've ever walked into this store. You don't know where you are, anymore. You lose physical grounding, and then your mind starts to wander. So now you're just walking around, dead silent, holding a plastic bag of cucumbers as random passers-by give you strange looks.

Or at least they would, if they had the inclination to ...notice things. But it's late at night and nobody is here because they want to be. Upwardly mobile married couples walking through the freezer asile trying to agree on whatever processed food product they want to eat for dinner.

They, like everyone else under the age of 30, probably find slices of turkey and random bits of food that nobody really eats anytime except Thanksgiving somewhat strange. Turkey chunks. Some sort of cranberry something-or-other. "stuffing." Probably some kind of goopy vegetable mash. You get a little bit of everything on your plate and arrange it in such a manner that your relatives don't start getting concerned. You eat it all up, nibble on some sort of bread, and then sip your beverage and try not to get asked if you want any seconds.

These couples wandering through the freezer asile ate their "polite" portions, and now they're out here trying to get something to actually cut the hunger and provide food for the day.

Being a "picky eater" is a symptom of being a member of my generation and my particular role in society, my "middle class" lifestyle.

Millions of people, worldwide, are going hungry right now.

But our generation, we have access to so many different types of food in such substantial quantities that we can actually develop preferences.

The phrase, "starvation diet," has different meanings in Rawanda than it does in California.

...don't forget to get floss.

"Thanks."

no problem.

"What does the Wal-Mart in hell look like? Just like this."

It's probably a stunning observation if you're stoned.