Walmart & the Krell

I had an outing the other day, Doc's office to check something. But, as it is when out of the house there's other things to do, So, within a very short span of time I found myself sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Because I am infirm, I have a temporary sticker that allows us to park in the slots designated for people with different maladies.

My wife went into Wal-Mart, something I refuse to do, even when I am feeling OK. She disappeared into the crowds of people that comprise the life cycle of the cultural Serengeti, I hunkered down so that any predators in the bunch wouldn't see me, like that baby gazelle we have all seen on the Discovery Channel trying to wait out the hyenas...which after scoping out the herds of this species and that, I am convinced that my survival on this planet has been a rather significant cosmic error, because the foundation upon which the modern medical world is based is like some kind of mutant viral life form. At some point, the swell of humanity will destroy it's own achievements.

Survival in a Wal-Mart parking lot is no small consideration. Just taking into account the other folks parking near me, as I peered over the edge of my window, I thought, "Geez, I'm part of this?" And, well, yes I am. No matter that some have reshapened their bodies by sitting down most of their lives and the obesity that is as much a result of poor choices seems to be a pandemic, their asses turned into flat shelves or their bodies unable to move in a coordinated fashion, or others dressed in stretchy jersey material that they probably picked out of their daughters dirty clothes bin and exposing more flesh than even a medical student would be comfortable with.

But, for me, somewhat of a keen observer of my fellow man and woman, I have long held the contention that we are a distant relative of the Krell.

Krell, you ask? And who are the Krell?

The Krell have lived in my imagination since I was a small boy. They were the race that populated the planet Altair IV. See, there are more populated planets in the universe. Yes, we are not alone. Well, back to the Krell of Altair IV. A film, which I consider a documentary, was made in 1956 and called the Forbidden Planet, not unlike our own planetary world here on earth, that is becoming more foreboding all the time, our own tower of Babel that keeps getting built upon the failures of the past.


The story goes that the Krell invented a machine that would allow them to realize anything within their imagination. Heady stuff, even for an earthling, because I don't know about you, but I have a pretty vivid imagination. And one look at Anne Francis...

However, the Krell forgot one thing in their ambitions to satisfy their hubris, and that is living within them was a dark primitive past. And once they turned on their machine that would produce a host of wealth, pleasures, and entertainment, it also produced monsters that destroyed them all. We are all just Greeks in the end.

I sat in the Wal-Mart parking lot wondering if the Great Mart with all the parking wasn't our latest version of the Krell imagination machine or a version of the Tower of Babel, giving us all so much stuffs of the wealth we have, the pleasures we want, like a bag of Doritos - which I sorely miss by the way, and the things of entertainment that help us tread water until our final destruction.

Well, in the end, I survived the pull of the Great Mart and the sundry devices of distraction that it possesses. Spotting my wife return through the herds still streaming toward the door, and looking totally unaffected by her experience, I moved slowly to put my seat belt on and unlocked the door as she got closer. Once on the road moving away, I wondered how long it would be before we fulfill the destiny of the Krell, unable to fully comprehend our own dark side and living in the carefree world of the distractions offered to us by the Great Martworlds across the globe.