“You too!”

That’s what he said to me: “You Too!” When I told him: “Enjoy your trip to New York!”

Wait a minute! I’m not going to New York. He is. And I told him to enjoy the trip. So why did he say “You too”?

I could have said: “Leap off the Empire State Building while you’re there” and he would have said: “You too!”

Had I told him to “Cut your heart out for me.” The answer would have been the same:

“You too!”

Don’t you just love it when the words we lob at each other have no thoughts in them?

Words shouldn’t be empty of meaning, coming from minds devoid of consciousness.

The “You too” response should follow “Take care of yourself.”

Or “Have a nice bray!”

I suppose you should say “You too” when someone’s wish for you is: “Get that disease where the flesh eating bacteria destroy your face.”

“Yeah. You too.”

But not: “Wish Eleanor good luck with her surgery.”

Fortunately, consciousness has an activist.

I’ve pretty much wrapped up my career of waging protest about ruination of our planet. No one listens. Hardly anyone cares. And the campaign to get us to stop wasting lives and money waging war? Another cause with good intention, no traction.

But check this out:

I advocate that people become conscious.

Has a certain ring to it, no?

I’m talking about a major problem here.

Not just words without thought. That’s a symptom.

We also are unaware as we put in our mouths stuff that masquerades as food, dive into relationships that are not good for us, continue habits that destroy our organs, buy crap we can’t afford and don’t need, vote for or against people or ideas without considering the consequences of those choices, deal with each other in ways that are not respectful and fail to notice how that attitude comes back, worry about things that shouldn’t concern us (like the idea of people of the same gender wanting to get married), and ignore real issues that do affect us, such as the speed with which our nation is coming to resemble a third-world country.

Unconsciousness has reached epidemic proportions in our 50 states. It’s no less rampant or destructive than obesity.

I’m taking up this battle to make the citizenry regain consciousness. Made a sign: “Wake up People!” and walked around town with it.

I started stopping people on the street to ask them what’s on their minds. I took a poll and tallied the results so I could report on what folks in our country are thinking about.

I broadcast my findings to the world because they were so remarkable, so revealing and important.

Too bad no one was paying attention.

I asked the “Wise One’’ how those who are conscious and enlightened, and well into middle age, might go about conducting their business.

He suggests:

• Now that you know what’s really important, make sure to organize your life accordingly.

•If you haven’t used something in a year or two, maybe it should be recycled.

•Take an inventory of limbs and organs: use what works and do your best to compensate for what doesn’t.

• Remind yourself that time is not speeding up.  It just seems that way because any period of elapsed time represents an ever-dwindling portion of your involvement in this life. A year seems a long stretch–half a lifetime–to a two year old. But that same period is but a fleeting moment from the perspective of a senior citizen.

• Recharge your mind at least as frequently as you do your mobile phone. Close your eyes and breath. Thinking during this process is strongly discouraged.

•Make sure to have something–such as a picture to look at, or a song to listen to. associated with the happy part of your youth. Then expose yourself to that bit of memorabilia whenever you feel the need to experience a bit of calm or of joy.

•Get used to the idea that yes, we have to keep reminding ourselves about those intelligent insights that help us get through life, but no, the same retraining doesn’t seem to be necessary for bad habits to persist.

•Whenever you’re feeling sad about the road not taken, remember that it too was filled with potholes.