Mornings are hectic in New World. Mom is up with her soccer uniform on, dad may or may not be there, it does not matter anymore, it is OK. Marriage is desired but, hey, been there, done that, what is next? The kids gobble down highly sugarcoated or frosted chemical by-products of favorite cartoon characters, heroes who stand in place of dad, whether there or not. Out door to oversized van or sports utility vehicle manufactured for expanding account of a marketer somewhere in Arizona. The baby, third and last child - because of dirty looks from neighbors - is strapped helplessly into government regulated “burden” seat and driven to nearest socialist adolescent camp. Yes, cared for adequately by a passable educator of a being and other 450 adolescent socialist of New World, child smiles happily because it is among its people, its subjugated peers, its future commandants. Next, dropped at minimal security educational institute up street, older of children begin multicultural day among a variety of color and sexual preferences. Entering building along with associates and fellow clique members, all wearing NWO (New World Order) T-shirts, slipping through high tech security door, they head to first class, Alternative Lifestyle 101. Some go to institutionally required course Sexual Decisions: Middle Level Premarital Education 101. Down hall and out only other door is Technology building that offers courses in Allusionary Imagery 101, Simulated Human Cloning 101, 102, Advanced Global Shield Physics, and Social Order by way of Persuasive Democracy, a cap-stone course. While passing through thirty-foot wide hallways, graffiti-stained walls (expressions of student’s feelings) brighten atmosphere making statements of what future will bring. Curse words echo hallway mixed with screaming lyrics from $400 compact disc boxes extorted from parents by kids through guilt. Glitters of light bounce from faces and mouths and bellies and fingers of kids who express creativity through ear, nose, throat, eye, and tongue-rings. Teachers, or faculty, compromise with kids to enter class with an anxious eye, promising them medically prescribed drugs in order for all just to make it through day, or just get along.

Flashbacks of wooden room hunt kids all day. Anxiety attacks press them sore and they move around, and talk and talk and move around. They sit in emotionally prepared classroom and reflect to past of wooden room. They curse parents in depths of heart and glance at a friend across emotional battlefield. The friend glances back with a deaden look, also remembering wooden room. Other kids sense reflection, anxiety, and inability not to move, not talk, and not move. They too, remember wooden room. The room imbedded minds of all kids. Branded onto brain like a tattoo, like one on her hip, his forearm, her shoulder, his hand, her breast, and his back, her behind, his belly. Imbedded like illusions of combat inside machine at corner store where they meet after release from “institution.” Imbedded, like frustration and bitterness against lost time, replaced by temporal electronics. The wooden room, so cold, so crowded, yet so lonely. The wooden room, so blue, so red, so far from love. When it is time to make everything better, New World will be a wooden room to all, and then all can rid world of love.

After planting and pruning, water tree thoroughly and give it a pailful of water every week during spring and summer months, except when it rains. Use a little less water then but equivalent to pailful. To keep moisture around your tree and keep weeds from growing, spread a mulch of ground bark or wood chips about 3-4 inches deep around trunk, with a shallow moat of earth made to hold water until it is absorbed. If you follow a few precautionary planting tips such as those above, you will be far ahead in your quest for healthy plants and abundant harvests.

So get ready for those apple, cherry, or pear dessert ideas. Enjoy! ©Arleen M. Kaptur 2002 May