Relative Something

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Cyndie carry this cracked bucket by the handle with around 20 pounds of water in it. As often as possible, I question her confidence in the reliability of the cracked plastic.

I wince at her usual response. “It hasn’t broken yet during all the other times I’ve used it.”

Yesterday morning, I asked her how upsetting it will be when that fractured plastic finally gives out and a bucketful of water spills all over her legs and boots. That is so not a risk I would take.

During my evening shift in the barn, I noticed the bucket hadn’t been returned to the usual spot near the spigot by the back door. She had placed it on this shelf in an apparent new adjustment of her risk acceptance.

We’ve got other perfectly intact buckets available for use, so there’s no need to keep using the cracked one.

I missed an opportunity to have “Santa” bring us a replacement bucket for Christmas this year.

I’m not entirely immune to taking risks, but I feel like they are less tangible. I don’t know why but I have a recurring urge to troll the Chinese Communist Party because of their overwhelming effort to squelch reality when it doesn’t align with their oppressive authoritarian agenda.

I know they can counter any U.S. questions about their human rights abuses by pointing out our history of slavery and attempts to destroy indigenous people’s culture, but that isn’t a fair comparison. The U.S. doesn’t deny those things happened and allows discussion on the topics.

From what I have read, the communist government of China doesn’t allow mention of the “Tank Man” and the violent crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. If no one can talk about it, that’s supposed to make it so that it never happened.

Now that I’ve gone and written those words, I suppose my risk of being hacked just went way up.

I blame CBS “60 Minutes” for their wonderful interview with self-exiled Chinese artist, Badiucao. I got inspired by his courageous activism in the form of creative art that speaks truth to power. Maybe it was because he has used Winnie-the-Pooh with Xi Jinping’s image.

Regardless, I should probably restrict my truth-speaking efforts to attempts of convincing Cyndie she shouldn’t trust the bucket handle not to finally give out just because it never has before.

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