There was this older guy on the news this evening, and it got me thinking. Some ancient politician of one sort or other was trying to explain some economic quagmire to the public without putting them to sleep. Completely lost with where he was trying to get at, my mind wandered and I watched the motions of his facial musculature. I couldn't stop noticing the various warts covering his face (about five of various sizes and shapes) that were moving while he spoke. There was also a globular bump atop his bald scalp looking like a volcano ready to erupt.

How come older people who have these big awful-looking warts and other protruding bumps on their faces never get such tasteless masses removed? Are they attached (pun not intended) to these life-long friends? Or after years of ever so gradual a growth rate has it never caught their attention that these little friends have sprung into existence? Because they have slowly grown and therefore never been noticed? Or could it be that by hacking these cellular masses the old folks would feel like they were tearing off a vital part of themselves, some piece of their being, an extension of their inner selves?

All right, let me be objective about it all. I will now try and understand their predicaments in a more rational way, I hope. Take my nice-looking nose of which I am very proud. Beautiful isn't it? Assume that my beautiful nose were to grow at an average rate of approximately 0.137 millimeters per day. Now that is hardly noticeable, not even a slice of a cell width so small it is. Assume also that this growth rate, while ever so minute, is constant over a good portion of my life, say about fifty years. I would barely notice it, and if you were sitting in front of me for all those years, I doubt that you too would even notice it. But after fifty years my nose would be two and a half centimeters longer (50 yrs x 365 days x .000137 centimeters = 2.5 centimeters). The law of physics which states that the distance travelled is equal to the velocity times the rate: d=vt. That's the same as one and a quarter inches! Now, would I want to cut off that extra protrusion? I think not. My case has been proved and it is now officially closed. QED.

The moral of this story is do not become fixated on the protrusions of sorts of others while they are discussing interesting matters which my just well change the course of history. Another moral might be to treat those with warts and other protrusions like you would treat yourself if your nose too were growing at a rate of approximately 0.137 millimeters per day or thereabouts.

I feel really really creative today. Can you tell?