The Lava Lamp

The lava lamp sitting next to the TV was rarely turned on. Once it had been used often - during parties, when he was playing video games, when he had a girl over. But lately, none of those things were happening much, so he just left it off, sitting there, the wax a solid lump at the bottom.

He bought the lamp several years ago because he thought they were fun, kinda kitschy and he figured if nothing else, it'd give him some extra entertainment when he got high. At first his friends thought it was a little stupid. It was just a lamp filled with green moving slime. They didn't understand how all the hippies in the 60's could have thought these things were fascinating. But then, one night, in the midst of a debate about justice, Brian made a comparison between fairness and the lava lamp. His argument said that justice could be just as malleable as the lava in the lamp. It could change with seemingly invisible forces and what we once accepted as just was now something completely different. This incongruous comparison sparked an hours-long conversation where the lava lamp was used as a metaphor for everything.

The lava lamp, or the goop inside the lamp, was like Barack and Hillary - competing entities forced to work together within the confines of the democratic party. It was like the lack of beer in the refrigerator - annoying yet fascinating. He kept a list of all the ways the world was like the lava lamp. Each weekend, they'd come up with more and more examples. Eventually the list started to get dumb. Entries like "the lava lamp is like oil on top of a pan of water" was true but hardly a revelation.

As the ideas started to dry up, the lamp was turned on less and less and his friends moved on to other amusements. Lately it was kicking each other in the balls to see who could best withstand the pain. He'd taken to wearing a cup most of the time. He was thinking of selling the lava lamp on Craig's list and getting a new set of friends.