god, i remember some article from like 10 years ago talking about how the russian economy was fake and bad, and i shit you not, said it was basically “just a gas station”.

and i remember thinking that metaphor really illustrates how resilient it must be. because you can go all over hollowed out anerica and see the picked clean skeletons and carcasses of ten thousand towns and businesses. evidence of places that once supported hundreds of people, living, working and sharing experiences like an echo haunting ruins of decay.

and the only building where you see people with lights and activity is the fucking gas station.

it sure as shit is not the drive up bank branch that underwrote loans and gave people in suits somewhere to gather while counting the % they were slicing off everyone who walked by.