Can’t You Feel Our Souls Ignite?

I think it is time for me to retire from social media. The screenshot of the post above is the best I can do.

Here’s a quick defense of the post.

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Meowalicious’ cone that keeps her from scratching open a wound on her neck looks like a flower. This cone reminded me of the outstanding flower costume Peter Gabriel wore as the frontman of Genesis in the early 70’s. This memory made me curious what I’d look like in such a costume. That’s improv.

I’ve never used ChatGPT. I’m a big believer that the things we make are important because we make them. Still, I logged into ChatGPT, uploaded a picture of myself from a decade ago, and asked it to put me in Peter Gabriel’s flower costume.

ChatGPT produced this monstrosity:

I uploaded three pictures as a collage on Facebook and Instagram. Meowalicious, Peter, and Sam. Narcissus was turned into a flower. A flower? These posts gave me joy.

I captioned the collage with lyrics to the prog-rock masterpiece Supper’s Ready. Can’t you feel our souls ignite? Your supper is waiting for you.

Finally, in honor of Steve Earle honoring Thomas Wolf and Doc Watson, I offered my apologies to ChatGPT.

I uploaded the post. Thousands of friends and connections scrolled their way into my thirst trap. Or, given the way that algorithms work, maybe I caught 6 people. Regardless, these post attracted the fewest likes I’ve ever received on social media.

Gorgeous.

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“It look like Meowalicious could skip a few meals,” the vet told my wife Katie and I as she explained the cone of shame. “She’s kind of chonky.”

We laughed until no more laughter would come. Chonky is the word Katie uses to describe Meowalicious too.

The lump of puss in Meowalicious’ neck was drained. She lost a battle with a fox tail. We took Meowalicious home, and I was reminded of Supper’s Ready.

I can think of few better apocalyptic rock songs. I actually dreamed about the song recently. I’ll tell that story in my upcoming book. The working title for my next work is Sam is Sam, Dad is Dad, and God is God. I think this is going to be a good book. Good in the way that the social media post above is good. I can’t say how many likes it will get. I don’t care how many likes it will get. I have the feeling Peter didn’t care how many likes his flower costume got either.

The things we make are worthwhile in the making, not in what is made. Not in how what is made is received. It is in the making.