Popeye's Commercials

Photo: Sunset, August 29th, 2005 - Popeye's on Wabash, Springfield, Illinois

I'm struck with an eerie feeling each time news coverage of the devastation wrought by Huricane Katrina is interupted by a Popeye's Commercial.

Popeye's hot, and spicey cajun chicken is on sale now the commercials inform us. Now word of bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans.

It's funny how our sense of reality depends so much on nothing changing. That sense of security was disturbed on September 11th, 2001, and now watching the devastation of Huricane Katrina I am once again reminded of the frail nature of man's existence upon this planet.

The sense of security which I had working in a large steel framed building was immediately erased after the Twin Towers were felled by terrorist attack. I'm sure many of those who have fled the path of Huricane Katrina feel equally vulnerable at this point.

Watching their homes turned back into lumber, their streets turned back into a swamp is a reminder that what we have created here is not permanent.

Hot and spicey crawfish is on sale, and nine pieces of hot & spicey chicken can be purchased for the low price of just $7.99!

Snakes are crawling up into the trees, and toxic chemicals are floating in the debris. It will take years to clean up, and rebuild what has been destroyed in one night.

That sense of regularity, that sense of safety has once again been shaken. We carve our presence upon the surface of this planet as if we were carving our initials upon the bark of a tree - and we want to believe that somehow we have conquered time, and nature.

Yet once again we are all very much made aware that we are merely vistors here, and that what we create is subject to the whims of nature, war, and neglect - and that is as true now, as it ever was - despite our faith in progress, and technology.

Popeye's twelve piece meal with two sides on sale for $15.99!