I come in to work, and we’re playing musical desks. Some kid’s sitting at mine. Well, cool, I find my new desk over by the window. I have a window seat! Fantastic! One of those little bonuses in life, like an aisle seat on an airplane. Mind if I take a little detour?

Airports have to be some of the most invigorating places in the world. First of all, they show a near-pinnacle of human power, just like those highway crossings where you have 4 levels of bridges over each other. How can you look at a highway crossing or an airport and not think, God, my species is the best! Ignore, for a moment, (I say this with no sarcasm) that we’re ruining the planet, murdering millions, and subjecting 99% of our species to extreme poverty; and just look at one of these wonders, read a couple chapters of Ayn Rand, vote Republican, scowl at a beggar, and say, we humans really dominate this world, as no species ever has before! We’re not perfect, but we’re doing something right!

Of course, on a less philosophical, more immediate level, airports are one place where you can quickly sate your desire for buying souvenirs from whatever city you’re in and magazines. Also fast food, or if you walk a little way (down the moving sidewalk) maybe overpriced bar-and-grill food. Everything at an airport is new, everything seems fancy, but in a subtle way, not like “look at me, I’m new and shiny.” Every time I go in an airport, I get that same sense of wonder, the wonder that says “Now, I am in the future.”

Airports are also fantastic places to juggle.

Umm… back to work. I sat down and had a mostly unremarkable day. Mandatory sexual harassment meeting at 1:30. We watched videos of situations and we had to decide if they were sexual harassment (obviously they all were). I would rant against this for its inanity, but why? Especially when you get gems like this: A guy saying to a girl “Hey, want some of my banana?” and pointing a banana at her suggestively. He continued to say “A banana a day keeps the doctor away!”

Towards the end of the day, I was talking to two guys, and I mentioned that I went mountain climbing in the Tetons last week. (I did… well really I just climbed some rocks, it was easy stuff because I had never done it before. By the way, watch for it, there’s a metaphor coming up). One of them immediately responded “Hah, I wouldn’t want to climb a mountain, why bother?” and the other one said “I’d just fall off.” I find it somewhat telling. Me, I’m still young, I want to climb every single mountain, going outward from Westlake, Ohio, in concentric circles, until I’ve covered the entire globe. I hope when I’m older I still do.

Really, that’s the theme of my life right about now. Idealism and desire to prolong idealism, because if you can’t keep that up, what can you do? I don’t want to fade away like my 400 million middle-class brethren! I want to be remembered! Or if not, at least say, on my death bed, I ate the entire habanero pepper of life, spicy seeds and all!

… just like the 400 million others.

Comments:

Anonymous - Aug 3, 2005

Hey Dan, just catching up with your blog again. Anyway, I’m all for idealism and you should never let anyone get you down about prolonging it as long as possible. I’ve found that there are so many daily symbolic mountains that people like to take shortcuts around everyday, including simple things like being kind, telling the truth, and applying a little mental elbow grease. These are overlooked so often and so poorly, that I find them some of the most rewarding mountains to climb and fall from. Anyway, the important thing is that you’re climbing, not that you make it to the top.