There appear to be occasions where a word or concept, despite past frequent use, has not been recently thought about, and, for some reason, later becomes prominent in one’s thought. We had such an interesting experience, recently with the ubiquitously used term, “fossil fuel.”
As commonly known, fossil fuel is a high-carbon-containing, natural substance such as coal and oil, found in the crust of the Earth, derived from the remains of animals and plants of our geologic past, millions of years after the organic remains become mixed with sedimentary matter and burial.
In a recent writing, (#M.2, “STREAMS Of CONSCIOUSNESS”) we observed that, from time to time, one indulges the relaxed and pleasant franchise of letting his mind flow spontaneously, and freely, which often leads to inner thoughts and occasionally, fantasy. As indicated above, we had such an experience, which in addition to its phantasmagoric content and essence, was felt to be laughingly, facetious.
Our uninhibited thoughts turned to man’s fortunate inheritance of unlimited graveyards of pre-historic animals, most particularly, dinosaurs, who lived out their prehistoric years, eating profusely, and procreating, then heroically and with great generosity, choosing to expire at accessible venues, within the Earth’s sedimentary conglomerate; thus affording to testamentary beneficiaries such as Sinclair, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Gulf, and a myriad of other like establishments throughout our Nation to subsist and thrive. We notably, are rather taken aback and xenophobically disappointed that so much largesse had been undeservedly, bequeathed to the various Middle Eastern nations. However, with the recent advent of electrically driven automobiles, such undeserved political influence may, accordingly, wane.
With the reader’s indulgence, we would now return to our episode of fossil fuel-dinosaur fantasy.
We found ourselves engaged in the arcane attempt to identify the specific primordial creatures, to be memorably credited, with producing the salient ingredients constituting the fluid mix of our usual automobile fill-ups; the latter endeavor, to be performed on a strictly, equitable and non-partial basis, in an appreciative attempt to assign posthumous gratitude to the specifically identified primordial philanthropist for said acts of largesse.
The concededly complex task was to construe a utilitarian method for the designation of these primordial remains as assigned to their appropriate purveyor. At first, we assumed some sort of Kabbalah-like clue observation regarding the first letter of the name of the discreet company. Thus, Citgo and Chevron, Carnotaurus; Shell, Sinclair and Sunoco, Stegosaurus; Mobil: Mastodon; BP: Brontosaurus combined with Mastodon, and sundry pre-historic fauna.
Such analysis was ultimately and objectively rejected, for the reason that the convenience of the method of designation was deemed unscientific and arbitrary.
We unsuccessfully attempted to employ other and sundry, alternate criteria in our determined searches, such as size, number (of outlets), octane (the higher the count, the more predatory the beast), and proximity (the closer to green environments, the greater the conclusion that the specific dinosaur was vegetarian; however all proved to be of no avail.
After much diligent research, travail, and profound contemplation, we were resigned to be relegated to a personally unsatisfactory conclusion, amounting to the unspecific, “stew/ soup theory,” which, more pragmatically instructs the didactic researcher that gas-guzzling automobiles ingest the haphazard and mixed remains of a vast and multi- diverse potpourri of primordial monsters, all in equal measure, metamorphosed and noxiously polluting.
-p.
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