Well this morning started out well. Not. Just moments ago I was setting up my laptop here at a very small table in Starbucks-Didn’t realize my cup of tea was situated so close to the back end of my laptop, and when I opened it, the backside of the monitor knocked over my tea. It was venti (large) sized and all of it had spilt. (sigh)
I quickly and calmly notified the staff. Thankfully, the clerk, Alicia (as I see on her tag), a very nice lady, came over and mopped it up right away-And she actually gave me another cup of Earl Grey. That was a surprise. I figure it was my fault and I should probably leave, let alone pay for a new cup. For a mega corporation, Starbucks does have a nice spill policy. I should hope to never do that again, but as I’ve said in a past blog, I am indeed a clumsy oaf.
What else? Ahh, yes. Had my usual phone conversation with my best friend Jeff this morning. We are essentially both off on Wednesdays, so this is when we tend to catch up on each others lives. He mentioned that he ran into an old acquaintance of hours from highschool. I will not disclose his name (hell, I won’t even pretend to try to spell it). Anyway, he apparently is well off. His parents run a local law firm which he is a part of. Jeff was in fact installing a new cable system for him (Jeff is a cable guy). He has a nice home, a girlfriend, and is living quite comfortably …apparently.
However Jeff had off chance made note of a letter left on our acquaintances table. An approval letter for Zoloft, an anti-depressant-And it made Jeff wonder why? I quickly replied that “Being as successful as he is, he’s probably under a lot of pressure, and that anti-depressant is probably a way of coping with it.” I went on-”We live in a very fast paced society where information comes at us at all directions and we have to deal with it on the spot. Some of us deal with it or adapt better than others. There are people in the world still stuck in the stone age, living very simple lives compared to us in the technological and modern civilized world. These tribal societies are barely clothed, only eat what they can hunt and gather; Yet when you see them in those documentaries, they all seem very happy and content. They have each other, their small community, and that’s all the distraction they need.”
The exchanged continued for several more minutes with us discussing and comparing this to each of our present living situations (our jobs, home lives etc) and Jeff said, “Y’know, it’s just like Tex Murphy said, ‘No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.’ –But look at us. Look at all the crap we’ve gone through. It’s like Tex Murphy, it’s like a video game. We go through increasingly difficult waves of situations that get harder and harder. We use whatever the game gives us to fight back, and it just keeps pressuring us-But we both haven’t gone over the edge and started a self-destructive smack binge.”
I replied, “Y’know, you’re right. Our lives kinda suck, but we’ve never gone overboard. Like you said, level after level, wave after wave-That is the perfect allegory. It’s like …Galaga. Life is like fekin Galaga. There’s that one bug that sucks up your ship, your life, and integrates you into the swarm. And with your new life (a new chance), you have to try and carefully, skillfully kill that bug that holds your former self captive, and free it. When that happens you re-integrate your old self with the new and have twice the firepower to combat the swarm.”
We both agreed.
getdador! 