Tuesday, February 03, 2004
(6:37 PM) | Anonymous:
The Politics of Lonely
My friend Rob Wagnitz is a music teacher, full time, in a little town in the thumb of Michigan. This little town is called Kingston. I visit him and feel very relaxed, being away from college, out and about in the real world, with someone that has actually succeeded at what he wanted to do. I tell him about the stressed of college, and he says, "You've got to get rid of the drama. You don't need drama in your life. You need drama outside of your life. That's the only place you can enjoy it."
I know I'm putting words in his mouth, but that's the gist of it. I find myself in this situation, and it's thanks to the powers of perception that I can travel from giddy enthusiasm to bone-gnawing depression in a matter of hours. I would argue that this has more to do with the many facets of life than with my own personality disorders, real or imagined. Simplification is the most elegant solution, and to this end, I am joining the Peace Corps. Er, applying to enter, anyway. I think I'd like to sell everything I have but my books, and hit the road. Well, the international road, anyway. The one that goes over the oceans.
It feels good, though. Purposeful. I'll be taking some good steps down the road to good-Mike-dom. You know the place - the place where you become the compassionate, caring, intelligent person you want to be. In a world full of people who think they've already reached that spot, maybe I'll get the courage to take some of these people on and teach them a thing or two.
About that salon article I linked to; does it bother anyone that President Bush, or someone close to power, is stretching their brains trying to think of ways America might be attacked? As Adam has pointed out in the past, it isn't a terrorist's use of technology that we should fear! The most effective weapons they have are fear and our reactions to fear.
Imagine, if you will, an America with anti-terrorist measures in place in America's heartland. Laboratories dedicated to the growth of existing food and animal diseases so that they can build vaccines, learn how to successfully treat infected animals, plants, and humans. That, to me, seems a lot more dangerous than putting giant steel structures full of combustible fuel in the sky (ie, commercial jets).
No worries, though. They're not that smart.
