£8

Today, I did not carry the world on my shoulders. Instead, I carried it in a bag.

The world cost me just £8. I thought it was a bargain but I suppose in buying the world I have also purchased all of its troubles. From desertification to starvation and from exploitation to deforestation. Yes - now I come to think of it, maybe it wasn't such a bargain after all.

To clarify for Ellen D and Mary M and Bruce T and David and James and Bob and Jennifer in South Carolina and all the other Yankee-Doodle-Dandies who call by this humble green blog, £8 is the equivalent of $11 US. For Marcellous, Andrew, Elsie and Kylie on that big southern island that is apparently not an island, £8 is the equivalent of  $15.3 AUS. For Young Meike in continental Europe, £8 is the equivalent of 9.18 euros. For Lovely Monica in Sweden, £8 is about the same as 98 krona. For Canadian visitors like Arctic Monkey Red, Nurse Pixie, Debra ("She Who Squeaks")  and Jenny in Nova Scotia, £8 is like $14.8 CAN.

You might be wondering where I found the world.

It was in a battered cardboard box in the Cancer Research shop at Rotherham's Parkgate Shopping Centre.

When I spotted it, an elderly lady with silvery hair and silver-rimmed spectacles said to me, "Oh, I was looking at that but I have got no room for it in my house."

I told her that I was tempted but I had come to Rotherham to take a long walk and I did not really wish to be burdened by the world. I wanted my hands free.

"It won't weigh much," she advised. "A big, strong bloke like you. It'll not trouble you. Get a bag with handles!"

Holding up the world like Atlas in tales of yore, I asked the nice lady where she had been. She told me that the furthest she had been was to the Caribbean Sea on a cruise: "when my husband was alive". I showed her where it was. She remembered Barbados.

So I bought the world and a big bag with a suitable floral design to carry the world therein.

And as I left with the world peeping over the rim of the bag, I jested to her, "I am sure you are an agent for Cancer Research... persuading innocent visitors like me to spend our money here!"

She laughed and so did the ginger-bearded shop volunteer who completed the transaction. I suspect he was a man.

Then I set off on my Rotherham walk, now slightly encumbered by the world in a flowery bag. It was certainly not what I had been planning - but to tell you the truth, the inconvenience wasn't too bad. The nice old lady was right. The world with all of its troubles didn't weigh too much at all.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/OFZjdHA