Pillows

My wife recently purchased two new pillows. While looking at the selection, she noticed that the plastic covers on the pillows had all been slit so the “Do Not Remove” federal tag was protruding. When she queryed a store employee about that, he explained that customers would switch the pillows in the plastic covers, replacing a cheaper pillow with a more expensive one. The store had found it necessary to slit the covers to expose the tags; at checkout the tag was scanned to verify that the pillow itside matched the scan code on the plastic case.

My mother remembers that her sister found some money in the field one day during the Depression. Times were very tight on the family farm, and they well could have used it. My grandfather refused to spend it; they might find the rightful owner so the money could be returned. There has been a marked degradation in the ethics of the country over the 60 or so years since that time.

Where do we think it will end up in the next 60? And why do we not feel an urgency at the disintegration of our society? I suppose that the sense of ongoing normalcy for most of us, as our immediate circumstances are not particularly affected, belies what we cannot see.