Kickass and great grandkids
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis did a quick check on some of the keeper’s great grandchildren in the Mazo area and found them all to be “great” and growing; and not caring a whit about the idiot governor of Florida or the war monger in Moscow.
It is a great-grandparent’s option to feel guilt at the world he or she hands off to the innocents of succeeding generations, but the keeper resists that. Back when he and Phyllis were being grandchildren–never made it to greatgrandchild, Hitler was taking over the world, Jim Crow was soaring over the country and there were “depression” breadlines.
Despite that guilt-denial reasoning, the keeper cannot avoid discomfort over passing on to the greatgrandkids a world that contains the “my pillow” crowd, lying as a pillar of life and extended car warranty phone calls.
Taylor and Trevor and Romy and Forrest and Margo and River and Samila and great-grandchildren everywhere will prevail, unless, of course, a navigation voice on Google Maps tells them all to “turn right at the next light and proceed over the rim of Grand Canyon.”
It could happen: the keeper gets similar messages regularly.