Tae Yoon: Life from 2006-2021

a conversation between two wildflowers on a sunny day: part 2.

"carl, what's with the sunglasses? is everything alright?"
"i feel tired today. life is making me glum."
"'glum?' but the sun is out and we got some warm rain last night. we should be feeling peak today."
"well, roger, i'd love to feel the way you do, but i just don't today."
"what's wrong?"
"seeing that worried face of yours, carl, is making me grateful that i have these sunglasses on. i just don't feel like being social today, i can't explain it. i'm okay i guess."
"well, let me cheer you up. maybe i can just talk and you can listen?"
"i'm not sure how that's different from any other day, but sure."
"so, have you seen how the chivers' redecorated their tree trunk? they added these faux mushrooms onto the tree's side and it looks so cool. they're in different colors and everything, i could stare at them for hours."
"yeah, i've seen them. those faux mushrooms are intermixed with real ones, right?"
"yeah, those! how awesome is that?"
"i don't like them."
"how could you not like them? they liven up the tree and make things so much better."
"make things better how?"
"you always ask such odd questions, carl! i don't know how they make them better, they just do."
"but those faux mushrooms don't have any function whatsoever. they add nothing to the tree except for the aesthetic of obviously fake mushrooms that have been plastered to the tree trunk's side."
"but why can't that be the function? to just please the eye?"
"because that's not a function, it's a preference---there's a difference. what if some poor, scatterbrained animal goes up to the tree and eats those faux mushroom by accident? then what? that animal will die in no time with all that faux mushroom in their system, all because the damn chivers wanted to decorate their tree. those fugly fake mushrooms are a bad distraction. they plunder attention away from the real mushrooms that have their own story. those mushrooms belong on the tree trunk and those ridiculously dyed fake ones don't."
"well, i think it looks good and i like it. the chivers should be able to do what they please with their own tree trunk."
"roger, you're making me more glum. i'd like to be left alone now."
"no, wait. we'll talk about something else then. how about we discuss your sunglasses. are they new? where'd you get them?"
"next topic."
"hmmm. oh, i know. did you hear about that young raccoon chick who was found dead this morning next to the chivers' tree trunk?"