Mr. Fred Update

So, How Goes It With Mr. Fred?

Mr. Fred still believes in giving people a chance to prove their good intentions, instead of judging them immediately to be the self-dealing criminals that they almost certainly are, and often turn out to be after it's too late. Sometimes, the price that he pays is merely emotional; sometimes, there is a loss of cash involved. Honestly, the last good jolt suffered as a result of this Pollyanna foolishness will probably close the door on this overgenerous nature. He tried, though, he really did. If a line is now drawn, it is only after a lifetime of supernatural forbearance. In the use of the term, “lifetime,” there is no exaggeration. Mr. Fred has been mistreated, abused, and let-down by people since he was a babe in those awful cloth diapers that were the norm at the time. Mr. Fred's misplaced forbearance for certain people lasted for their entire lifetimes. But hey, if humans in general are unworthy little shits, whose fault is that? It is not, I suggest to you, Mr. Fred's fault. So fuck 'em. The living and the dead. Fuck 'em all.

Mr. Fred remains, sure and steady, perched in the thick of his far-away brier batch. His health is good. He is officially old, bald, fat, and happy. He tries to keep himself as thoroughly distracted as possible with music, reading, and the Internet. He is reading more novels than had been the custom. For many years, he tended to read history and general non-fiction, but those things have lost some of their gloss as distractions. Novels, entire invented worlds, are intended to carry you away from the world that you wake up in, and they still do a wonderful job of it. He's even read some classic science fiction, including Babel-17, by Samuel R. Delany, after decades of ignoring the entire genre. If the world situation sinks even further into chaos, Mr. Fred may be forced to resort to writing a novel to avoid confronting the horror of reality.

(Best wishes to you all. May your efforts to process and deal with the exigencies of modern life bring you comfort and happiness. Keep track of the foods that may disappear from our diets, and enjoy their consumption while you may. Remember your reusable bags! Keep a shelf or two of analog books handy in case the Internet goes down permanently. Try not to worry too much, because, after all, there isn't much you can do about anything.)