As the last half on May approaches, sometimes we get the feeling that events are not only catching up with us, but somehow they are passing us by in a cloud of smoke. Clarity can be choked off as chaos, both in the world and in our private, little supposedly secure lives, grows and grows with a magnitude unfelt until it crowds clean, simple thought.

George Carlin, one of our most-favorite people, turned 70 this past Saturday. Hard to believe one of the few straight-shooters left on this planet is that old. I can still hear his voice on the first album purchased in 1972 in which Carlin posed questions and offered solutions like the word “narc” — Carlin wanted to call drug police a “Narcotics Officer,” instead of “Narc,” because the sound of “Narcotics Officer” was easier, and soft, and held a better sense there could be a compromise, or at least some kind of give-and-take instead of the granite-hard, no holds-barred, brick-wall “NARC!” Carlin touched a funny vein, even for us in 1972 when we were straight as an arrow and really did not comprehend his “shit” routine where he compared the word with it’s real-life usage (“Shit” was rarely used in a real sense, but in some other way, i.e., “I don’t have to take that shit,” “Get that shit out of here”) and we sure didn’t fully understand what Carlin meant by the drug reference: “Want to buy some good shit? Brought it back from Cambodia in a guitar.”

Not long after, however, when we entered the University of Florida, “shit” became smoke, ganja, pot, ‘a bag’ and a blissful sense of all is right with the world. An allusion, though, as ages passed and “shit” became a standard term for the ills, problems and chaos that cropped up privately and in the world at large. Carlin felt this, too. In a recent posting on his Website, Carlin commented on a bogus interview somebody claimed was with him. Although, Carlin did say the interview was not genuine, the philosophy embedded was:

“The main problem I have with it (the interview) is that as true as some of the expressed sentiments may be, who really gives a shit. Certainly not me. I figured out years ago that the human species is totally fucked and has been a long time.”

And as we gaze upon the world at large today, May 14, 2007, Carlin is right. Humans are fucked.

If a glance at events currently rippling across the planet is any indication, a very, very large bang is quickly approaching. And no one gets out of this shit alive. And the only answer is presently not on the planet, but will be soon.

Ah, yes, have a nice day and keep your shit dry.