Melting Snow

A sense of humor is part of a person's survival instinct, which may or may not have something to do with common sense. A sense of humor is important to survival because with out it life is too frustrating, mundane, and difficult to deal with. A sense of humor shows us the absurdities and weirdness in human nature and modern civilization, and it lets us laugh at these things. A sense of humor is a spiritual attribute, and a part of the human creativity (also a spiritual attribute). Together these two attributes encourage us to look beyond the obvious to see the hidden meanings in our lives.

It would feel weird, especially since my childhood home is in a town that was once declared a superfund site. I was raised--until Junior high (middle school)--in Blackwell, Oklahoma. This is the town that was the location of the Blackwell Zinc Smelter  . The company that owned the Smelter were good cooperate citizens, and gave free sand (contaminated by zinc) to anyone who wanted it. That means that houses, churches, schools, and businesses spread contaminated sand on their property. I know that cancer is one of the issues with zinc contamination, but I don't know what other medical issues this type of contamination causes. Therefore, before I write a story or poem about it, I have to do a little more research on the subject.