PROMPT WORD: ENERGY
Henry slid the door to the minivan closed realizing the day was just getting started and he already felt exhausted.
The struggle to get his six-year-old to put on something warm before he went off to school had somehow morphed into an argument over whether that layer was called a ‘coat’, ‘jacket’, ‘sweater’ or ‘sweatshirt’ ending in a shouting match.
Once behind the wheel, he relaxed and marveled over how easily an immature mind could manage the manipulation of the main topic of ‘staying warm’ into something so trivial with such skill.
When Henry got the text from his wife that their adult son, Josh, had surprised her and had come home from college for the weekend, he decided that the day that had had a rough beginning was going to end on a ‘high note’.
At dinner, all felt right until Josh leaned back in his chair and told his parents they had a duty to buy an EV and that all fossil fuel production worldwide should stop immediately or the planet-including mankind- was DOOMED!
Henry (once he picked his jaw up from the floor) calmly told Josh that he was being a little extreme with those conclusions and that current human beings could not, and should not, take that viewpoint seriously since not only transportation but most of all products and research, including our medicines, depend predominantly on hydrocarbons to which Josh covered his ears with his hands and screamed, “Killers!” then stormed out of the room as Henry just shook his head and said, “I just don’t have the energy for two immature arguments in one day… Please pass the potatoes, dear.”
https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2022/11/02/its-thursdays-six-sentence-story-link-up-10/
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That is so absolutely right on. The arguments, not discussions, with my teenage grandchildren, on my views on transgender rights, are legendary.
Stay strong and patient, friend. ❤
Henry could have added that EVs need batteries that mostly rely on fossil or nuclear fuel for charging. But he had those potatoes to get to and now he’s got that much more!! 😂 Loved this sixer, Susan!
Oh the places he could go! 6 sentences couldn’t even begin that discussion. LOL
Thanks, Dora. More potatoes made everything okay. 😋
There are now many countries in the world where renewables generate the vast percentage of electricity.
I see what you did Doug. Is it a coat or a jacket? Clever as a six year old. Renewable energy includes nuclear and is the cleanest alternative (which I’m all for) to ‘fossil fuels’. The need for petroleum (as Henry tried to explain) is far greater than just for heat/transportation. Those countries that use mostly ‘renewable’ energy are low in population and industry. Good for them! Not nearly doable for the “big guys” who produce the products we all depend on.
To eliminate fossil fuels before they can ‘do it all’ is like shutting off your lights not knowing where your candles are. 😁
Oh good. They can help all the first-world countries that are suffering under energy shortages now.
BOOM! Good answer, Dora!
Susan and Dora, I’m no tree-hugging wide-eyed believer in universal or quick fix solutions and, yes, the transition will take time, but a few facts can help those who choose to read them and fairly assess them. Still scratching my head as to why the US is lagging the rest of the world in solar, which is easily the cheapest and most abundant alternative.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-can-renewable-energy-power-the-world/?leadSource=uverify%20wall
https://www.parlia.com/a/there-are-no-safe-options-for-storing-nuclear
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/how-manufacturers-are-developing-and-using-renewable-energy/1175001/
I do appreciate attached articles occasionally on topics I feel inadequately researched in, but this topic is not one of them. We each can learn more on any topic but when our ‘core’ concepts are at odds, such as, truly preserving our natural environment not just deciding to ‘rape’ it in new ways, awareness of biased computer modeling foretelling Armagedón for political purposes, the knowledge of how well the U.S. has been dramatically reducing its ‘carbon footprint’ (for its size) already, the terribly unreliable (dangerous) nature of solar in a country with dramatic weather variations, and the dreadfully abysmal cost/benefit unevenness of something so terribly unreliable and inefficient, compounded by a healthy dose of the attitude of “why all the rush, we aren’t running out of ‘fossil fuels’ for centuries?” and “Nature isn’t terribly fragile. She’s been here for a LONG time and will outlast our sorry arses.” Thanks, but I feel I know all I need to for now.
PS> If all other largest industrial nations aren’t even trying while they prepare to pounce on us, perhaps we ought to be nagging them? Wait… they haven’t weakened themselves while we quibble. Never mind, they’ll call the shots soon. I’m sure preserving the planet is their top priority, though.
Yikes… did I say all that? Sorry. LOL
After a day like that, if I were Henry, I’d push the plate aside the just dig into the bowl of potatoes… then hit the recliner and take a nap, lol
🤣 …with a beer chaser! Thanks!
Welcome to generation 5,672 of ‘everything parents ever do was and is wrong’ and it shall be ever thus. 🙂
The art of discussion is something young people need to learn. It’s also always been this way. They’ll work it out in a few years. 😁
Henry seems like a scholar of The Art of War…he knows what fights to give and when to tactically retreat 🤣
All too familiar, Susan!
Excellent take, Nick! Sun Tzu occupies a prominent place on my bookshelf. 😉
Reminds me of “honor thy father and the mother”. Josh is a good reason not to send one’s children to college.
I hear you Frank but the struggle would likely take place on other topics due to the immaturity of many ‘adults’ in the ability to discuss topics. Let’s hope Josh does some maturing … likely college won’t help that.
Nice ‘turn-around’ on a culturally preset cautionary tale.
(And, one cannot be blamed for wondering, if there is a lesson here for a character in addition to Josh?)
fun six
Thank-you Clark. My child care experience has allowed me many examples of immature thought processing. I easily know it when I see it!
Isn’t it wonderful when you bring your kids up to think for themselves and they tell you that everything you do is wrong!
Inevitable and hopefully only temporary! Thanks! 😀
a world of slow learneres it seems…we all repeat the parental mistakes. good take on this..i have no energy to argue
It’s probably an inefficient wind powered kind… so sorry. 😉
Thanks!
I feel for him, I think I’ll have a potato too!
Sounds like a great philosophy. 😀 Thanks!
You squeezed in quite a lot in six sentences – generation gaps, energy crisis, craze for EVs and that killer line ‘picked up his jaw from the floor’ 🙂
Yeah, thanks! The responses were delightfully varied according to tastes and perspectives. I love when that happens. 😁
My mother had an expression: I don’t know where you got those ideas. It certainly wasn’t in this house.’ Seems it’s a perennial argument. A thought-provoking six, Susan.
Thank-you! And your mom and my mom are much alike. 😁
There are days when you just can’t win, so you might as well enjoy supper.
Absolutely. Try again tomorrow. Thanks!
Henry’s offspring seem rather melodramatic. I don’t think I’ll be inviting myself to dinner at his house anytime soon.
As soon as he goes back to college, he’ll get more chances to ‘cry’ and the household will be a calmer place. LOL Thanks.