I think these are what I saw on the back of a vehicle:

“In a perfect world, a guy could fix his relationships with duct tape and WD40.”

“A real job interferes with my plan for world domination.”

Thus, my thoughts are swayed by ink patterns on a piece of plastic backed with removable adhesives.

Miranda and Angelique have slimmed their figures.

Melissa is tutoring.

And I, at 50, am trying to find a place in the world where I can sit back, letting the next generation figure out what to do with our species’ place in the universe.

I have decided not to vote in the next nor any following election that my political districts have available to me.

No longer do I care about political issues that may or may not affect/effect my existence as a node in a social network.

Public/social medical funding doesn’t matter to me.

Public military project funding doesn’t matter to me.

Oil/gas/coal extraction doesn’t matter to me.

Environmental caretaking doesn’t matter to me.

Political office seekers do not matter to me.

From my years of experience, nothing in politics matters to me.

The issues that concern me are outside the influence of politics.

The freedom to enjoy my freedoms is mine to call what I want, free from the wants/needs/pleas of others.

I cared about the environment because my grandmother was such a strong believer in flower arranging and the Federated Garden Clubs.  She’s dead so I no longer have to pretend to care about flowers, flora, fauna or environmental issues of any kind.  If my drinking water is polluted and I die younger than I might have otherwise, so be it.

I cared about the military and spy books/movies because my father and my father’s [nonbiological] father, as well as my seventh great-grandfather, served and supported the military.  My sister’s husband still actively serves in the military and my wife works for a military government contractor so my level of noncaring is lifted just above zero for their sake.  Otherwise…zip.

I drive/ride in motorised vehicles and use electricity at home (I wouldn’t be here without it) so, despite my nonplussed attitude, I support, through marketplace activities, the oil/gas/coal/hydroelectric/solar/wind/geothermal industries.  Otherwise…nicht.

My deceased brother in-law worked for NASA as a physicist so I supported space exploration for his sake.  As the pain of his early death passes from my current emotional state, my support of space exploration wanes.

These are the steps I take to free myself from the influences of my youth and the influences of the youth of those who’ve gone on before me.

I/you can see that as long as I participate in our market/economy, I physically support activities that I disagree with philosophically (or for which I’ve stopped supporting mentally).

Compromises are a regular part of who I have been and continue to be.

My death is mere decades away — let me enjoy my remaining days without interference from those with whom I no longer agree or align.

If you have a cause célèbre to advertise, feel free to pursue in front of someone else’s face — I am not interested.

I have heard enough of my species that I am happy talking to myself here day after day, sometimes imagining these stories are written for the raccoons in the attic, the squirrels chewing on the side of the house or the spiders in the front seat of my car, even if they’ll never understand a blog entry I’ve written.

My mother’s motto, if she has consciously thought of one, has always been along the lines of “Don’t do anything that’ll make the neighbours talk about you.”

My father is dead but my mother is still alive.  It is time to give attention to her unofficial motto.

Let me find some quiet place where I can read a book, watch TV, surf the ‘Net and relax here in obscurity.

I first voted in 1980.  The last time I ever voted was in 2010.

Happiness is being happy with myself in this moment.

Happiness is an imaginary set of thoughts.

I am happy; thus, I am a figment of my imagination, a physical fact, a fragment of this corner/center of the universe.

Just like labels on a piece of plastic plastered to a plastic bumper.

13,772 days to go, give or take in the give-and-take of a tree bending with the wind, its roots slowly dying.