God Bless America!

Over the last 60 years, construction on the largest man-made structure in history was begun and now approaches completion while drawing only the smallest attention from mainstream media. This incredible structure stands astride an astounding area of 1.0577 x 10¹⁴ square feet! The actual height and capacity of this great building is not yet known because construction is not yet complete, but the marketing department insists that the breakthrough materials and methods used for construction of this massive monument will provide only the highest quality of life for all 305 million of its occupants.

Among the proudest innovations is a new “environmentally friendly” recycling technique which allows the girders used to support the lower, more foundational levels to be removed and “recycled” into the basic structural members of higher stories. Taking inspiration from the financial sector, this technique works on the principle of diverted load whereby the girders, pillars, and other needless structural elements of the building are encouraged to “delegate” so as to make better use of their precious time and energy. This clever maneuver allows for the “promotion” of certain elements which appear to be unnecessary to higher levels in the overall structure. Thus, a considerable percentage of construction materials used on the wide and once-sturdy base, can be relocated to a slightly smaller upper level; and the process repeats.

When asked about the emerging shape of his new creation, the chief architect—an American born failed-plumber, turned failed-financier, turned failed-politician, turned chief architect—suggested, “I prefer to think of the whole scheme as less of a pyramid and more of a dome.”

Regardless of the shape, the American’s “Dome” boasts other earth-shattering innovations as well. “I think I’m most proud of the new insulation system,” commented Zephyr Hindenburg, head of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. “We have achieved a system which completely shuts out all external fluctuation and influence. This allows us to heat the air inside and then recirculate that same hot air throughout the entire building without having to worry about the various climates outside these walls.”

Mr. Hindenburg refused to comment on the massive proportion of world energy used to accomplish this anti-climatic miracle, but did direct us to his mistress who is the head of the marketing department: “We have brilliantly invested the resources of only a small majority of the world into this single monumental structure,” said a busty Candy Honeywell, clad in a see-through tank-top and cutoff low-rise silk thong with half of the corporate logo microscopically emblazoned on the remaining fabric, “and because of that we have become not only the world’s leading outsourcing economy of construction labor, but also the chief technological innovators in dome-based construction schemes. Once this incredible building is complete, we won’t have to rely on the world for other input, oversight, or perspective—only natural resources. At the same time, we will have solved such inter-domal environmental problems as global warming with the massive cooling towers we’ve located in the Canadian wilderness. Together with the coal-burning power plants we’re building in the South American rain-forests, (internal) climate issues will be a thing of the past. What a brave new world we live in!”

But most experts around the world are concerned about the massively-myopic-lens-shaped structure because the foundation is already showing signs of major structural instability. The engineers responsible for the construction process were unavailable for comment on account of being too far above the ground overseeing construction of the upper levels to come down to earth and see for themselves. Nonetheless, we expect the first radio wave transmission regarding this issue to reach them in the next week and hope that a response will soon follow. In the mean time, the building is functioning beyond expectations in other ways—specifically in shutting out the outside influences of said world-wide experts. And despite the looming structural issues, the building’s owners—the Chinese scrap metal companies which have financed the construction—maintain a very optimistic outlook.

Until the construction reaches it’s final point, the inhabitants of the great monument remain blissfully settled inside its comfortable accommodations. Having never learned to speak a language except English, the single-language system has worked wonders in allowing this society to build its way into elevated national security; surely, a tribute to their lasting greatness!

Here I dreamt I was a bus driver

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. USA

Here I dreamt I was a bus driver. Just one in ten thousand. Yes, there are that many. When so many residents opt for public transport, their chauffeurs are in high demand. All of my friends are bus drivers. All of their friends are bus drivers. But it wasn't always this way...

Once I worked in a factory--a steel factory. Not forty years ago, I was part of the grandest industry on the planet. Hell, we built this planet. Well, we built this city. We built every city. "Pittsburgh steel," they would say. If you want to build them tall, you need that Pittsburgh steel. And for that, you come to me.

I was the mind behind the machines that built the machines. My job was to control the emptying of the LD Converter (you know, the machine that replaced the Bessemer converter in the smelting process). At my command would the giant vat of steel lay down and give up it's payload. I direct it into a mold to form parts of a crane, a girder, or a bulldozer. At times, I would even guide the molten metal into a smaller vat, from which is poured the block of the very engine driving my bus.

Those days are no more. When the red day came, none of us were left standing. I think I saw it coming but refused to believe it. I was the last of my friends to go. In the end we were all gone, and so was the industry that built America.

At the time, I remember so many people protesting outside my industrial office. Cleaner air is what they wanted. Is that worth a man's livelihood? How about the livelihood of ten thousand men? Say nothing of their families... I remember hearing a picketer speak of 21 people who lay dead from the polluted air. Surely it was an exaggeration. An anomalous weather pattern supposedly failed to blow away the "Pittsburgh Cloud" and over just two days, he said those people breathed in enough steel smoke to breathe their last. Surely that can't be true.

Talk of death always make me think of religion. There is a church I pass on my route which comes to mind. I always wondered what the inside looked like--the exterior demands that much of me. It's a black stone like none I've ever seen. It's beautiful, not in the least for it's uniqueness. Although, when I try, I remember seeing several others built of this same stone. But let me not get side tracked. This church I finally entered last week. It was a happy occasion, mostly. A friend was getting married, again. But what I remember of the ceremony was the inside of the church--built in a beautiful limestone, almost white. It was such a contrast to the volcanic black of the exterior. As I left, I touched the stones and found them disturbingly similar, inside and out. Both limestone, but the inside shown in it's naked beauty. The outside wore the mourning veil of one hundred years' soot.

My city wears the scars of our nation's progress. Someone had to do it. No one said they did it. Now many are undoing it. I am undoing it. Pittsburgh saw it's own Renaissance. In fact, we saw two. The government rallied, the populous voted and spent, then "The Smoky City" was reborn from its ashes. With successions of public works and cleanup programs, this old fort towne is alive again. Her economic lifeblood flows through the arteries of mass transit. We all ride the bus and cough a sigh of relief. The dark clouds have left alright but left their mark.

I am a priest of the new Renaissance. Each day, I atone for the sins of many; I atone for the sins of one--to propitiate the pollution we all produce. Come worship in this temple and sing the praises of our mother, the city. Generations past have made her live, but it was this generation that made her livable.

Here I Dreamt I Was a Traveler

Saint Louis, Missouri. USA

Here I dreamt I was a traveler. The skyline is a brand new sight to see. What secrets lie among your canyons?
No matter. That's a question for another time. First things first. I've got only a few hours to find a place to stay. Yes, it may have been a good idea to call ahead, but one doesn't always have that luxury.

At a time like this is when you realize that information is an extremely valuable commodity. There are a thousand--perhaps a million--places to sleep in this town, but at the moment, every single one is out of reach. Some of these places are available. Some aren't. It's time to find out.

I walk the city strets pushing a little button every few steps. This button, or more specifically the LED light right next to it tells me when I am a rich man. It lights up! I have a WiFi signal. A wealth of information is soon at my fingertips. Checking my surroundings, I'm in front of a St. Louis Bread Company. "Hmmm... this place looks a lot like Panera."

In less than ten minutes, I've found a bed and an Asiago Cheese Bagel (but not in that order). By the time my bagel is gone, I also have a list of the best that St. Louis has to offer. The Arch, Union Station, The Botanical Garden, The Anheusier Busch Brewery, and (perhaps best of all) the many different neighborhoods with their unique styles and personalities.

Seeing the sights is a funny goal. It's all done now and I have some beautiful pictures on my camera's memory card to prove it. But it's done. Perhaps what I take with me most of all at this point is the sense of how these people live. Of course there wasn't time to settle down, learn their lives in full. But I know enough now to tell you that baseball is very important to these people. It's so important in fact that St. Louisans are even willing to venture downtown to see a game. What a gesture of support for the Cards! I've learned enough to tell you that St. Louis has a lot more traffic than Little Rock, but a lot less than Atlanta. And I've learned enough to tell you that most everyone has this conflict of a sad optimism about their city, which they can't quite articulate. Once a place of great industrialization, wealth and prosperity, St. Louis has lost most of its wealthy patrons and passionate advocates to the fallout of a 50 year suburban winter. So what's left is only the best of the political vultures fighting over the scraps.

As I board a two-winged ticket to the next great destination, St. Louis starts to disolve into the broth of past experiences. But one thing this foreign traveler will not lose to the doldrums of experience is the sense of what could be. This burden of potential is something that I will share with this fair city for decades yet to come.

Traveling

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
- St. Augustine