It's here again

The orange Bong Motor reverses down the avenue, bleeping and lights flashing. Stopping outside the house, it tips a bin-full of our lives into its steel jaws and gobbles it up; I half expect it to belch. And I realise that what I am watching, through my double-glazing, is a microcosm of the life-cycle: here today, Bong tomorrow.

Today, a spanking new cornflakes box, all eager and ready to serve, and in a few short days… a piece of sodden cardboard; returned to the collective unconscious of the rubbish dump. And the sad thing is that there is nothing the cornflakes box could have done to make its end any different. Whether is has been a good box: discharging its contents, cleanly and accurately into the bowl, or whether it has been a bad box: always falling off the shelf, and refusing to relinquish its cereal until a vigorous shake disgorges half its contents over the breakfast table – it makes not one jot of difference.

Ah, but what about re-cycling? If I put the box – all neatly pressed flat – into the blue bin, then it will go to the re-cycling plant, and live on, as part of other packaging, yet to be born. Reincarnation!

And that, children, will be our topic for tomorrow: Reincarnation – is it worth coming back for.

So, goodbye boys and girls – be good children, or the Bong Motor will come and gobble you all up.