"Kerry" Is So Very

While I was sitting in my car at a mall parking lot waiting for a store to open for the day, I watched as a 20-something year old woman hobbled out of another store on crutches. She had an elaborate metal knee brace on her right leg, which I guess explained her heavy reliance on the crutches. She was also a little "beefy" and was wearing running shorts and a t-shirt, all of which made me think that she was, maybe, an injured college athlete.

She took one step off the sidewalk into an empty parking space, but then, curiously, turned back around to face the store front again. Then she maneuvered her crutches so that they rested back up on the sidewalk, all the while keeping her feet firmly in the parking space. Then she leanedway over into her cruches, effectively making a "teepee." (She was really leaning.) "What in the world is she doing?" I thought, as I stared at the tatoo of a gothic cross on her left ankle within which was written the name "Kerry."

Then she pulled out a plastic lighter and a pack of cigarettes and lit up. And it hit me. She had expertly maneuvered herself into this very odd gymnast-like inverted "V" position so that she could smoke without the inconvenience of having to exert herself by standing up. This way, the bulk of her weight was placed on those crutches, and she could just enjoy.....

And sure enough, as soon as the cigarette had burned down to the filter, she flicked the butt beside her, pulled herself upright again, and hobbled back into the store from which she'd come.

Is this what we've become as a country? Lazy, yet oddly ingenious in the service of sloth. Rapacious consumers of health care services, while consciously making terrible lifestyle choices?