Gimme Shelter!

This morning, as I sat in my thinking chair on the patio out back of my house, I got to…thinking.  It was one of those random “what if” kind of thoughts that just sprung up.  This time it was “what if humans had no need for shelter?”  I know, you’re asking where did that come from?  I really don’t know.  It just birthed itself as some cells in my brain sort of crashed into each other and came up with it.  So now what?  What to do with this thought?  Well, think about it, I guess.

Let’s say the weather on the entire earth was consistent and at a perfect temperature for human life to comfortably exist with no more than a single layer of clothing.  Actually, it would be more accommodating if there were no clothes involved at all.  But I know most of you won’t go for that, including me.  I just thought it made sense because we would be no different from all the other animals on the planet.  You realize, don’t you, that you don’t see antelopes in the dress department at Macy’s or centipedes shopping for shoes at Payless.  So you see, we would be just like all the other animals, naked and thinking nothing of it.  I guess we might grow some more hair if we got chilly or shed our skin once a year if we were having a growing spurt…whatever.  The point is, we would not need shelter to protect ourselves and we would feel comfortable hangin’ in a cave or under a tree when some rain came along. No shelter…poof, no clothing stores.

So, what next?  Well, I suppose hardware stores wouldn’t be needed.  I can’t think of a single shelter thingy that you can’t buy in the hardware store.  It’s where we buy all the tools we need to build a shelter.  It’s where we buy everything we need to maintain the shelter once it is built. No shelter…poof, no hardware stores.

I’m not sure I see any more stores closing at this point.  We could still use furniture to sit on and tables to eat at.  They are just basic comforts and have nothing to do with shelters.  They’d just maybe have to be built weatherproof.

Appliances would be okay, too, I guess.  We dont’ need a shelter to have a fridge or oven and, God forbid, we can’t live without a dishwasher.  I suppose we could find a place on a flat spot of grass to put these things.  We would have to have electricity to run them so that would be another item we would not have to give up just because we kissed shelters goodbye.  Computers, TVs and stuff like that could also stay.  Again, there would simply have to be some new design work done to protect these things from the outdoor elements.  We can keep cars too because I know we will still want to go to Disney World and to Target.  Can’t live without Target.

Oooh, oooh, I just remembered, we definitely would want to keep toilets.  Maybe that would be the only real shelter we’d still have, unless we truly do become like all the animals and don’t think twice about taking care of our natural needs out in the open.  Not me, though. I need walls and something to read when I’m on the can.

You know, I’m starting to rethink this whole shelter thing.  Maybe this particular what-if moment I had is a bit iffy.  Maybe shelters are meant to be for humans.  We just have too many things we need, want, desire and insist upon having.  And, if we are to have all these things, then we need a place to put them all.  Hey!  A shelter could handle that!  It’s like the Rolling Stones sang: Gimme, gimme shelter or I’m gonna fade away.

I think I’ve come full circle on this one.  Shelters have to stay.  I forbid them to disappear.  Shelters are a good thing.  We must celebrate.  I don’t know about you, but I’m going to buy myself a new pair of shoes and a box of nails.