When Fairy Lands Become Dumps

When I was young and had an hour's bus ride each way to school, there were certain places that I used as markers to let me know where we were on the route. Mostly, I did my homework on the bus, occasionally looking up to see how much longer we would be riding around.

Along the route was a lovely little cottage home; it was one of my markers. I called it a fairy cottage. It was well-kept, with lilac bushes and flowers everywhere. It was always a beauty of a place and I liked to imagine living there with such a well-tended yard. A small girl could be a princess wandering around that yard. 

Fast forward and I don't know what happened, but one day I drove by the fairy cottage, and it was a dump. The house was unkept, the yard unmowed, piles of metal stuff sat everywhere, the garage door constantly stood open. The flowers were dead, the lovely trees were either cut down or dying. I don't know what happened to the people who lived there, but they obviously are not there now.

I don't like to judge; I don't like it when people judge me. Today, though, I'm feeling judge-like. What has happened to having pride in the places we live, in our jobs, in our personal grooming? Many homes that were once pristine fairy cottages now look like dumps, with yards piled with junk, shingles off of the roof, the siding falling off or the paint peeling.

Is this what we aspire to now? Living in dumps full of junk? Half-ass doing our jobs, just to get a paycheck? Dressing for less than success? (I am guilty of that last one, I'm a jeans and t-shirt gal. But at least they're clean clothes.)

A drive around the area shows that the moniker of "white trash" is alive and well - and deserved. I don't know when having crap piled around your house became the "in" thing, but it's a horrible look. I know that in some instances folks don't have funds to fix up a place, or they're elderly and can't do it. I get that, I do. But so many? So many places around here look like something out of "Deliverance" that it's a wonder I don't hear Dueling Banjos ring out every time I get out of my car. 

As for jobs - everywhere I go, I see people half-assing it. They're just there, and if you bother them, because you know, it's their job to deal with you, they let you know you've bothered them. How about a little professionalism? A little pride in what you're doing? So what if it's a minimum wage job? The person who gets ahead is the person who treats it like it's more than that. And they treat the customers like they matter.

Heck, even I still dress up a little to go to the dentist.

Even the state does things half-way now. They used to mow frequently when I was young. Now they mow maybe twice a growing season, if that. The weeds stay in the way, you can't see to pull out, the road out near the interstate (where what used to be a truck stop is now a "bee pollinator" area that the state seldom touches) looks like a wasteland.

This is what 40 years of "trickle down" economics has wrought, I think. It trickled, all right. Only it wasn't money or economic certainty that trickled down. What trickled down was disrespect, laziness, and attitude. 

Society without manners, without politeness, without a bit of nice, without pride in itself, is not society at all. It's not a community, either. It just is.

Maybe that's what's wrong with us now. We just are. And that ain't no way to be.