Another quest to cure the world of Full Pocket Syndrome

"I am a model tenant and a model citizen and take pleasure in doing all that is expected of me. My wallet is full of identity cards, library cards, credit cards. Last year I purchased a flat olive-drab strongbox, very smooth and heavily built with double walls for fire protection, in which I placed my birth certificate, college diploma, honorable discharge, G.I. insurance, a few stock certificates, and my inheritance: a deed to ten acres of a defunct duck club down in St Bernard Parish, the only relic of my father's many enthusiasms. It is a pleasure to carry out the duties of a citizen and to receive in return a receipt or a neat styrene card with one's name on it certifying, so to speak, one's right to exist. What satisfaction I take in appearing the first day to get my auto tag and brake sticker! I subscribe to Consumer Reports and as a consequence I own a first-class television set, an all but silent air conditioner and a very long lasting deodorant. My armpits never stink. I pay attention to all spot announcements on the radio about mental health, the seven signs of cancer, and safe driving--though I usually prefer to ride the bus. Yesterday a favorite of mine, William Holden delivered a radio announcement on litterbugs. 'Let's face it,' said Holden. 'Nobody can do anything about it--but you and me.' That is true. I have been careful ever since." --John Bickerson Bolling in Walker Percy's The Moviegoer

Mr. Bolling is about to embark on an undefined search. I believe I can relate.

"What is the nature of the search? you ask.

Really it is very simple, at least for a fellow like me; so simple that it is easily overlooked.

The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. This morning, for example, I felt as if I had come to myself on a strange island. And what does such a castaway do? Why, he pokes around the neighborhood and he doesn't miss a trick.

To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair."

I believe I am onto something, which is encouraging. I am no longer in despair. I will definitely let you know of everything I discover. I want to throw down a rope and give anyone a chance to be onto something.

I am not being self-righteous here at all. I am currently fumbling and grabbing at ropes that others are throwing down to me. I just want to extend the favor - the blessing.

More posts to come soon - I was pretty busy, tired, computer-less, and/or incapacitated during my last week and a half on the farm to post anything. But I am back in the States, missing my fellow castaways and excited to greet old outcasts.