flashfriday 3-14-14 digging in the dirt in Flash Friday

“They spend all day digging in the dirt.”

“Huh? Who?”

“These women.”

“You know I’m not actually in your head right? I have no idea what you’re talking about. What women?”

“There’s a name for it, I forget, there was a stupid 20/20 on it a few years back, made it sound like a disease or something, but, no, it’s different --- older, more instinctual.”

“Oh. Agriculture.”

“What are you stupid?”

“Digging in the dirt.”

“No. They dig for clay and they eat the clay. Pregnant women. They had people in offices with glasses and business casual clothes talking about psychological disorders or mineral deficiencies … a couple years ago. 20/20 is always wrong.”

“You know the remote control changes the channel without you even having to leave your chair.”

“It’s more primal. The bible says something like in the beginning there was the word, but that’s not right. There were things long before words. People eat words, they eat them and they spit them out, as though they were things, pips, solid things like pips or sometimes bricks. People use words to forget instinct, they construct whole realities out of words, build them right on top of the ruins of instinct.”

“Ok.”

“Don’t patronize me. They dig in the dirt, women with swollen bellies, they dig for the clay and consume it. In the beginning there was the dirt, the skin of the earth, the mother, the cradle of life. Even in the bible, the word is god, but man, he comes from dirt.”

“I missed 20/20 on the bible.”

“If they had one it would be wrong. Or maybe it would be right because the subject is wrong. The bible is a very old construct of words built on the ruins of instinct. Its very age gives it weight. All those people who lived and died clutching to the book or clinging to those words, it gives it weight. “

“You know there are places like Vanderbilt, very good schools, where you can get a PhD in, pretty much, the bible. There aren’t any schools where you can even minor in instinct, not even as an undergrad.”

“Yeah? How many times in written history has it had to be rewritten? Every time, every day. You don’t need to study instinct, even you, all bleached flour, refined sugar wonder bread, even you in your clown wrapper of textiles, somewhere at the core, you have the instinct. The instinct to hunt, to hide, to procreate. Your own endocrine system has the good sense to flood with adrenaline when you are scared, you don’t even know why, you don’t have the time to think.”

“Shit, I missed the 20/20 on me too.”

“They dig in the dirt, they eat they clay, they bear children and the human race continues. You have a remote control. Some still dig in the dirt, they don’t have too, but they are real humans. A real human hides in you, a skeleton of clay and marrow and tiger teeth. And …”

“Marlene, I’m sorry, our time is up. Shall I have Calvin take you back to your room?”

“May I go to the garden?”

“Maybe tomorrow. “