Shit Happens

Shit happens. Does it mean anything? Usually not. Then why all the talking heads telling us what to think about two or three recalls of toys made in China? What does it mean? It means most toys are made in China, right? Naive fool! It means much more than that! Cross my palm with green and I'll tell you. So say the talking heads.

It's another aspect of apophenia, that human quality of finding faces in clouds and significance in everything that happens. These days intelligent folks find secular meanings; in the Middle Ages the meaning was a moral. T.H. White's translation of a medieval bestiary is a good read. The panther attracts his prey by opening his mouth and emitting a seductively sweet breath. Even so Satan lures us into his chow chomper with promises of sweet joy. The whale pretends to be an island so that shipwrecked mariners will camp on its back; then it dives and drowns them all. Even so Satan etc. Undsoweiter ad nauseam.

Shit happens, and some shit works. Story of evolution, story of the universe.

Photos happen too. And they're chock full of, um, meaning – ask any head.