What Could Have Been ...

I confess to being unable to take my eyes off the extremely large man in the scooter, ahead of me in the register line in ... (gulp) Wal Mart.  He was sooo very big, more of him spilling out the sides of the seat than what was contained within.  Even more disturbing was the conversation between the gentleman and the cashier. He had instructed her to slowly run each of the large size cans of Mountain Dew through, because he had no idea what was left on his Access Card for the month.  She did as instructed, announcing the total as she did so ... $180, $181.07, ...  Giant cans of soda, obesity, public assistance, and a scooter in the store that seems to cater to the neediest of our population, urging them to enter its golden palace, and seek what one can only imagine one truly needs - crap disguised as bargains because the price is so compelling.  When we can afford nothing, and we can actually come away with something, have we really purchased anything?   I must admit, the movie Wall-E disturbed me with its images of fat folks floating through the air, their plump arms and legs immobilized by disuse, their goards stuffed automatically.  But how far from that depictIon was this man's reality?  And did he even realize - was he even capable of realizing - the life he could have had, if he had not bought into the notion that he was entitled to the life he has been given?