Wallerin' in The Mud

 

Wallerin’ in The Mud

by Edmund DeHart

A peek inside of a Muddy Mind

 

 For those unfamiliar with southern U.S. parlance, the English verb “wallow” is many times pronounced as “waller” in areas of The Southeast, especially rural areas. According to Dictionary.com, the verb “wallow” means “to roll about or lie in water, snow, mud, dust, or the like, as for refreshment” (”wallow,” def. 1).

 Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it refreshment, but after some pondering, I came to the conclusion that The Mud was worthy of just a bit more investigation and analysis. To carry this out would require certain bold actions on my part, and I was up to the challenge. After much forethought and planning, I managed to "crack" the rock-hard skull of a Mudder, and climb inside for a look around. Man, let me tell you, it was scary in there. I saw red-eyed rats, short-circuits, Vicious Cycles, flocks of bats, and many other such spooky sights. But, let it be known that Ed DeHart will do whatever it takes to get his readers a first-hand account.

 One of the first things I came across in the dank and rancid environment was a large engine. It was called the Validation Machine. I surmised that the device works to counter the “monkey-on-the-back-syndrome” referred to in The Mud. It appeared that the thing runs day and night, searching endlessly for any possible scenario, occurrence, or opportunity that may lend credibility to the Mudder. I stayed beside it just long enough to see some of its output. It generated such schemes as “associations with high profile and governmental officials”, “religious affiliations for image embellishment”, and “grab the credit at all cost.” I guess this Mudder will eventually attempt to befriend the President and Pope to raise the self esteem. I concluded that it is assumed society will automatically render credit based on such foolishness. A waste of time that is.

 I walked carefully past a few of those red-eyed rats to another device called the Accusation Leveler. This setup appeared more sophisticated than the Validation Machine, and was of greater interest to me. Obviously, the role of the machine is to generate charges, but the complex processing mechanisms that I witnessed led me to believe there was much more to the setup than just this simple task. As I traced backwards to the original input, I saw that that the machine was fed prior wrong acts of the Mudder. In essence, whatever transgression the Mudder has committed is retrieved and recycled from hard memory, then funneled directly into the Accusation Leveler. There it is! Wrongful and unfounded accusations are generated and cast. I’m sure this machine eats up a lot of the cognitive resources of this Mudder. I had to move on.

 As I paced around this Den of Diablerie, I could not help but notice the absence of any machinery dedicated to innovation and creativity. It saddened me that there was no room for generating original thoughts and ideas. Well, with so many cognitive assets devoted to the Validation Machine and Accusation Leveler, it was no great surprise. However, as I searched around for a place to sit and rest, I did find an old model of the Copy Cat-a-Logger, though. This small and simple contraption just mimics and spits out what others have done, all in the name of creativity. I sat on it for a brief spell, looked around and let the sights sink in. They weren’t pretty.

  As I said, it was kinda’ spooky in there, so I figured it was time to be heading out. I am disappointed to report that I had overestimated the mental acumen of this particular Mudder. It really doesn’t have to be this way, but it is. That is shame - in many ways.

 

©2008    Edmund DeHart

Reference:

"wallow." Def. 1. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wallow (accessed: August 05, 2008).

 

About the Author:

 Ed DeHart is married and the father of a son, Adrian. His interests include music, digital media and foreign languages. Currently, he is working on several music projects and looks forward to rolling these out in the near future.

You may keep up with many of his works and projects at his website www.edmunddehart.com

and The Open Library: http://openlibrary.org/a