Brain Flossing

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June 06, 2002

Response to Kasei's June 6 2002 blog entry

«Last night I spent up in the hills at Gary's place, chilling with some friends in the pool, and it bugged me. Not the people, or the conversation, but the specific lack of meaning. Or rather, meaning to me. And this is terribly selfish of me, but I've grown accustomed to, thrive on, and almost crave the nights when we sit around and talk. Talk about things that seem important.»

--"orangecreamsicle blosxom"

I too have thought above the above quite a bit. I enjoy almost nothing more than a heated debate about something thats IMPORTANT. Of course, part of relatavistic thinking is acknowledging that whats important to me may not be important to others, and visa versa. However, there clearly is dialogue about topics that are not important. Veg time. Veg time is ok, probably beneficial, but it I still feel the desire for the great debate. The problem is, it doesn't seem like my desire is shared by many others. One theory I had (based on coultural differences I noticed between America and other countries) is that people are so busy, and so wrapped up in the motions of getting by, that they don't have time or energy to even think about things outside of whats imprtant to deal with right now. Even I have been caught in this hole many times. As I said in an earlier entry, when theres always something to do, theres not enough time to do nothing. Its precisely this 'nothing' time, that allows the sort of intraspective thinking and debate that I crave. For, in order to have a debate, one must have ideas. If one never thinks about anything important, or anything outside of their little lives, one has nothing important to talk about. Whats somewhat ironic about this is that its only been for a couple generations that we as a people have been able to NOT have to worry about the basic essentials and deal with real issues as a people. Yet, it was this drive to eliminate the uncertainty of tomorrow that lead us to far in the right direction. Now, we work all the time for things which are not necessary at all. Its almost like we overcompesated.

So I'm moving to a small town (pop ~4500). One of my hopes is that the people who desire to get out of the rat race city life and move up here are exactly the type of people that have time for talk. So far, I've found it to be true. The people up here aren't completely wrapped up in their careers or laidene d with too much to do. They have time for leisure, vegitation, and debate. But the big question is... what will they talk about. Will they have any interest in the great questions and delving into figuring out the human condition, or will talk merely revolve around sports and gossip. Not that theres anything wrong with talking about the latest peak you bagged, or run you nabbed. In fact, the exchange of those types of stories gives me great pleasure. But will conversation ever wander to more intraspective topics? We'll see.

Posted by wonko at June 6, 2002 12:35 PM

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