is being brain dead becoming contagious?

By Sun Advocate

Have you ever been driving down the street and had someone pull out in front of you? I don’t mean a couple of hundred feet away, but so close you can see what kind of cell phone they are using when they do it?
Well if you haven’t, particularly in the last few years, I think you are the exception. Of course when that happens to me I am gracious and bless the person, bidding them good cheer and happy times. Just ask my family.
But this kind of thing seems to be happening more and more. Brain deadness seems to be afflicting all of us on a regular basis more often. There are many classifications of it, with the above example, vehicle brain dysfunction, being not only one of the most prevalent, but also the most noticible, especially when the two vehicles meet in a most unromantic way.
I think if a study were done, we would find that brain deadness takes many forms. It occurs in all age, race and socio-economic groups. Education doesn’t matter either, except it is my recollection that some of the most brain dead people I have ever met were some of the most educated. Intelligent people often blame lack of attention on the “absent minded professor syndrome.”
Anyway in the past few days I have noticed more brain deadness than usual. Maybe that is because I spent part of the last week away from the common sensed people of Carbon County and in the Las Vegas area instead. As we all know common sense is at a premium in parts of that community.
The next time you go in a casino on the strip (or even Mesquite or Wendover) count how many people either trip over you or step on your toes. They are so taken by their surroundings that suddenly no one else exists in their world as they stumble their way along over everyone else that is in the way. Actually the problem is even worse right on the strip as tourists look up at the Paris or Ballagio pointing and talking. I actually saw a guy walk into pole looking up at the psuedo Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and Casino on Sunday morning. I know from personal experience that his face doesn’t hurt as much today.
Sunday afternoon I spent some real quality time at McCarran International Airport while a friend of mine was trying to rent a car. As I stood by the escalator I began to talk to a woman who works for a transportation company that meets conventioneers at the airport. I asked her how she liked her job.
“It’s great,” she said. “I get to meet people from all over the world. It would be better if there weren’t so many of them that were brain dead.”
I laughed to myself, being a definite connoisseur of brain deadness (a discipline it takes years to develop). The lady offered to demostrate her frustration for me.
She held up the sign that had the name of an insurance corporation on it (we’ll call it XYZ Insurance) and as people walked up some of them noticed her and asked which way to go. That was fine. But a number of them walked up to her and said, “Are you from XYZ?” I’m sure she wanted to say “No I just hold this sign so people will ask me stupid questions.”
But what was really funny was the people who walked right by the three foot square sign with XYZ emblazoned upon it in flourescent letters and then came back later looking around for their ride. One guy that was about 6’5″ pulled two suit cases all over the baggage area and passed her twice. We knew he was one of her “sheep” as she called them because he had a bright pink tag on him, just like all the rest did. I guess the company put tags on their employees just like most of us do on luggage, in case it gets lost.
He finally walked up to her and said, “Are you my ride?” She told him to go to the bottom of the stairs and he would find the bus. She was pleasant, but then she looked at me and rolled her eyes.
I know life is busy, and we are almost all preoccupied with our own problems. But don’t you think maybe we should all start to try and think more clearly; to be more alert to our circumstances, but more importantly to the circumstances of others around us. In doing so, there would certainly be more courtesy in the world and a more caring attitude about others as well. We all need to get out of our own heads sometimes and realize there is a big, beautiful world out there that needs us.
But those of us who live in glass houses shouldn’t take showers, should we? Or is it throw rocks?