The pocket of time that love creates
Unlike that of any other phenomenon,
That moment when the seconds synch
with the beats of your heart, racing
faster
faster
and faster
Even though the moment has stood still.
That entrancing contradiction where time stands still
yet races.
That bubble of time where all else fades away and the two of you sit inside
The rest of the world moves on around you
The world spins on its axis and you both stand still
simultaneously racing through time while the world races around you
Leaving you both trapped inside a blissful separation from which neither cares to escape
That impossible moment
when the two of you find each other
and time stands still.
then you look at the clock
and realize time's moved faster than it ever has.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
People who go to the Gym at 5 A.M.
We all take ourselves too seriously. I prefer willing myself into a state of delusion for comedic effect.
I went to the gym today. For the first time in probably two months. I used to go every single day at the same time. But when I went this morning all the attractive women weren't there! I asked my buddy who had been going much more consistently than I have what happened. He said they kinda stopped going. About two months ago.
So naturally my reaction was: "So you are telling me I stopped going to the gym and then allllll the good looking girls just stopped going, eh?" I said this with a pretty big grin on my face.
Anywho, there used to people I knew, the regulars at that time.
Obsessive compulsive slob (the guy who does the exact same unwavering routine everyday...in the exact same clothes)
Overly intense Redhead (the hot girl whose legs are so muscular they look like they could break a high school lunch tray in half...and I'm not complaining)
Woo guy (the guy who yells to psych himself up)
Weird looking intense girl (the girl who rolls out of bed and works out in her pajamas)
Overly cosmetic gay guy (the guy who has no functional strength but looks really strong in the smallest tank top he can find at Baby Gap)
Self-conscious cute girl (the girl that does her make-up before coming into the gym to squat against the wall for a couple minutes and then leave)
Really really really really ridiculously good at the jump-rope girl (seriously, she does like hand-stands and stuff at breakneck speeds, I just sit and watch when she is there and I don't care if anyone thinks it is creepy, its spectacular how good she is....and I'm not complaining)
The Look-a-likes (a guy who looks eerily like Mike Krzyzewski and either works out with his sister or dates a girl that looks entirely too much like himself)
The inappropriate stretching girl (a girl who stretches in ridiculously provocative poses on a stability ball just a little too close to people and happens to be in their lines of sight....and I'm not complaining)
aaand Finally...
The You'll-think I'm making this up Guy (no kidding, this is a 6'1" 230-pound [no muscle] 54-year-old white guy probably livung in his mother's basement. He has a Jew-Fro, wire-rim glasses, 80's style short shorts aaaaand a belly shirt.....that comes off.....completely off, while running on the treadmill......with so much sweat flying off the fro that the three treadmills on either side become vacant...you are welcome for that image......and yes, I am complaining)
I went to the gym today. For the first time in probably two months. I used to go every single day at the same time. But when I went this morning all the attractive women weren't there! I asked my buddy who had been going much more consistently than I have what happened. He said they kinda stopped going. About two months ago.
So naturally my reaction was: "So you are telling me I stopped going to the gym and then allllll the good looking girls just stopped going, eh?" I said this with a pretty big grin on my face.
Anywho, there used to people I knew, the regulars at that time.
Obsessive compulsive slob (the guy who does the exact same unwavering routine everyday...in the exact same clothes)
Overly intense Redhead (the hot girl whose legs are so muscular they look like they could break a high school lunch tray in half...and I'm not complaining)
Woo guy (the guy who yells to psych himself up)
Weird looking intense girl (the girl who rolls out of bed and works out in her pajamas)
Overly cosmetic gay guy (the guy who has no functional strength but looks really strong in the smallest tank top he can find at Baby Gap)
Self-conscious cute girl (the girl that does her make-up before coming into the gym to squat against the wall for a couple minutes and then leave)
Really really really really ridiculously good at the jump-rope girl (seriously, she does like hand-stands and stuff at breakneck speeds, I just sit and watch when she is there and I don't care if anyone thinks it is creepy, its spectacular how good she is....and I'm not complaining)
The Look-a-likes (a guy who looks eerily like Mike Krzyzewski and either works out with his sister or dates a girl that looks entirely too much like himself)
The inappropriate stretching girl (a girl who stretches in ridiculously provocative poses on a stability ball just a little too close to people and happens to be in their lines of sight....and I'm not complaining)
aaand Finally...
The You'll-think I'm making this up Guy (no kidding, this is a 6'1" 230-pound [no muscle] 54-year-old white guy probably livung in his mother's basement. He has a Jew-Fro, wire-rim glasses, 80's style short shorts aaaaand a belly shirt.....that comes off.....completely off, while running on the treadmill......with so much sweat flying off the fro that the three treadmills on either side become vacant...you are welcome for that image......and yes, I am complaining)
Monday, January 2, 2012
Pride
Pride is a funny thing. In my experience, It just seems to get in the way of human interaction more than anything else. People are too proud of who they are, what they think they are, what they think they should be to deign themselves to talk to someone "beneath them". It works in the other direction too, when people are too proud of who they are to talk to someone because they think the other person is "above them".
Pride screws with your head. It tells you that you are supposed to be something better than you are.
Guess what? You aren't.
No one is.
We are all pitiful, pathetic, beautiful, amazing, incredibly frustrating, stupid, brilliant human beings. Nothing more.
But you have that whisper in the back of your head. No, no. You are special, you are different from everyone else. You are smarter, faster, stronger, better than other people.
Guess what? You aren't.
No one is.
You are still living down here with everyone else.
Pride sticks in between you and other people. Your friends, your family, strangers, acquaintances. It's subtle and it makes people lie and obfuscate the truth and dance around things, even with people they know, people they are close to, and especially people they want to be close to.
It's that arch in your back, it's that little voice in the back of your head, it's that little turn up of your nose, that little hesitation when you want to say something, put yourself out on a limb and say what you really want to say or do...and then you don't. That's pride.
We're all the same. Why don't we act like it?
Pride.
Pride screws with your head. It tells you that you are supposed to be something better than you are.
Guess what? You aren't.
No one is.
We are all pitiful, pathetic, beautiful, amazing, incredibly frustrating, stupid, brilliant human beings. Nothing more.
But you have that whisper in the back of your head. No, no. You are special, you are different from everyone else. You are smarter, faster, stronger, better than other people.
Guess what? You aren't.
No one is.
You are still living down here with everyone else.
Pride sticks in between you and other people. Your friends, your family, strangers, acquaintances. It's subtle and it makes people lie and obfuscate the truth and dance around things, even with people they know, people they are close to, and especially people they want to be close to.
It's that arch in your back, it's that little voice in the back of your head, it's that little turn up of your nose, that little hesitation when you want to say something, put yourself out on a limb and say what you really want to say or do...and then you don't. That's pride.
We're all the same. Why don't we act like it?
Pride.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Prove Me Wrong Please.
People don't generally think this about me. They think I'm stubborn. They think I'll argue to the bitter end because I hate being wrong.
The truth is, I love being proven wrong. Its distinctly the reason I argue so heatedly about things I think. I love it when someone proves me wrong. When they fire back with a passion that equals mine, with a rationality that defeats my own. That is why I travel, it is why I live, it is why I talk to people. To prove what I think I know wrong. To always be learning. To think something new. To learn that my long-held idea that the earth is flat is ridiculous, that it is round, and then to learn that that isn't right either, the earth is an oblate spheroid, what will it be next?
It is the simplest form of pain in history; the pain of change. A change in what you thought was right, a change in the way you thought the universe worked, a change in how you liked your world to work. But the pain of change always leads to something different, a new adventure born. The day you know everything, you might as well stop.
Prove me wrong.
Teach me something new.
Show me a new way.
Start a new adventure.
The truth is, I love being proven wrong. Its distinctly the reason I argue so heatedly about things I think. I love it when someone proves me wrong. When they fire back with a passion that equals mine, with a rationality that defeats my own. That is why I travel, it is why I live, it is why I talk to people. To prove what I think I know wrong. To always be learning. To think something new. To learn that my long-held idea that the earth is flat is ridiculous, that it is round, and then to learn that that isn't right either, the earth is an oblate spheroid, what will it be next?
It is the simplest form of pain in history; the pain of change. A change in what you thought was right, a change in the way you thought the universe worked, a change in how you liked your world to work. But the pain of change always leads to something different, a new adventure born. The day you know everything, you might as well stop.
Prove me wrong.
Teach me something new.
Show me a new way.
Start a new adventure.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Deep in the Heart of Texas
What I've learned about Texas in my short time here:
1. Texas drivers are infuriatingly awful. My number one pet peeve is that they all seem like they went to the same driving school and the instructor didn't know how to make a turn without coming to a full stop.
2. Texas has terrible pizza. Seriously, it isn't even passable. A Texan trying to make a pizza is like a Chinese person trying to pronounce the letter L.
3. Texas makes up for it by having outrageously good Hamburgers.
4. Texas is full of Stunningly beautiful tall blonde women (even if they aren't really blonde, they still count)
5. Texas' dating scene is ridiculously bourgeois.
6. Texas people have no idea how to handle snow, as can be seen through 2 people trying to clean their cars off with a spatula and a blanket, respectively.
7. Texas is really sprawled out. You can meet someone you work with and find out that they live an hour and a half drive away from you.
8. Dallas Cowboys fans hate Tony Romo as much if not more so than non-Cowboys fans.
9. 75 degree weather is apparently too cold for going to the pool.
10. Drinking and Driving is not driving while drunk. Driving while drunk isn't tolerated, but drinking a beer while driving is simply "road soda"
11. Drinking and Working are the two mainstays of life. If a Texan isn't doing one, he/she is doing both.
12. Lightning Storms are spectacular.
1. Texas drivers are infuriatingly awful. My number one pet peeve is that they all seem like they went to the same driving school and the instructor didn't know how to make a turn without coming to a full stop.
2. Texas has terrible pizza. Seriously, it isn't even passable. A Texan trying to make a pizza is like a Chinese person trying to pronounce the letter L.
3. Texas makes up for it by having outrageously good Hamburgers.
4. Texas is full of Stunningly beautiful tall blonde women (even if they aren't really blonde, they still count)
5. Texas' dating scene is ridiculously bourgeois.
6. Texas people have no idea how to handle snow, as can be seen through 2 people trying to clean their cars off with a spatula and a blanket, respectively.
7. Texas is really sprawled out. You can meet someone you work with and find out that they live an hour and a half drive away from you.
8. Dallas Cowboys fans hate Tony Romo as much if not more so than non-Cowboys fans.
9. 75 degree weather is apparently too cold for going to the pool.
10. Drinking and Driving is not driving while drunk. Driving while drunk isn't tolerated, but drinking a beer while driving is simply "road soda"
11. Drinking and Working are the two mainstays of life. If a Texan isn't doing one, he/she is doing both.
12. Lightning Storms are spectacular.
Monday, November 14, 2011
A Dream Within a Dream
Why do dreams have such a drastic effect on our waking life? One little dream skews your whole day. A good dream can make your whole day so much brighter, even if it happens to be the worst day you've had in a month. A bad dream casts a pall over a good day and makes it seem dreadful.
Dreams don't even really mean anything. The most random of thoughts congeal into chaotic ramblings your brain doesn't even have control over.
You dream about a friend of yours that screws you over and the next day you have an irrational distrust of them.
You dream about a girl you know and for the next week, you think you have a crush on her.
You dream about a girl you do have a crush on and you hate her for a week because you dreamt about her dating someone you dislike.
You dream about someone you haven't thought about for a decade and you can't get them out of your head for the next month.
You dream about your job, you dream about your home, you dream about the gym, you dream about that girl, you dream about a girl, you dream about some girl, you dream about snow, you dream about sun, you dream about trees, you dream about bees, you dream about wheels, you dream about seals, you dream about water, you dream about rain, you dream about dreams, you dream about yourself.
They don't mean anything.
But somehow they mean everything.
Dreams don't even really mean anything. The most random of thoughts congeal into chaotic ramblings your brain doesn't even have control over.
You dream about a friend of yours that screws you over and the next day you have an irrational distrust of them.
You dream about a girl you know and for the next week, you think you have a crush on her.
You dream about a girl you do have a crush on and you hate her for a week because you dreamt about her dating someone you dislike.
You dream about someone you haven't thought about for a decade and you can't get them out of your head for the next month.
You dream about your job, you dream about your home, you dream about the gym, you dream about that girl, you dream about a girl, you dream about some girl, you dream about snow, you dream about sun, you dream about trees, you dream about bees, you dream about wheels, you dream about seals, you dream about water, you dream about rain, you dream about dreams, you dream about yourself.
They don't mean anything.
But somehow they mean everything.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The Culture of Stupidity
There is a pervasive attitude I find infuriating about American culture: We herald stupidity.
More than any other country I've been to, America holds up stupidity in the highest regard. There are aspects I admire as well, such as the culture of heralding creativity more than any other culture I've been to as well, but I just can't get over how Americans seem to hold up stupidity as the golden standard.
It has nothing to do with actual intelligence. I have known plenty of smart, interesting people that just have no interest in being intellectual at all. It is completely the attitude that the country engenders. It transcends race, but it can sometimes be enhanced by it, as well. I've heard way too many stories of a black child who is intelligent being told his whole life that he isn't "black" and is acting "white" by being intelligent and getting good grades for me to think that this issue is immune to race, but white trash areas, hispanic, Italian, etc etc still ostracize children for being smarter than they are. So what happens is that smart people start acting stupid to fit in with their peers. They learn to appreciate stupid things, and revel in stupidity.
It goes back to British humour and why hardly any Americans understand it. British people seem to value intelligence. I think that's why Americans find them pompous. In addition to the "properness" of the British, but I think that is just outward appearance and the underlying attitude is that of a culture that values intelligence and critical thought. They aren't the only ones, but we grew out of Britain originally, so they incur our collective teenage angst backlash.
If you put the concept of absurdist British humour inside the frame of a culture that values intelligence and people who look for meaning in things, who think critically about what things mean, who actively participate in the thought of what is going on around them; all of a sudden, British humour starts to make sense, because if you take that culture and insert something that sort of makes sense a little bit, and throw in 10 things that make absolutely no sense at all, the psychology of British humor and its absurdity starts to become clear.
America will never get it though, because they are too busy paying football players to go to college and not go to class rather than pay for an inner city genius to get his degree and become the next Leonardo Da Vinci.
We'll just continue to sit on our couches until we are too stupid to remember how to grow food and start pouring Gatorade on the fields instead of water because they market it well and otherwise we would have to think logically. But hey, at least we are still the best in the world at throwing a ball.
More than any other country I've been to, America holds up stupidity in the highest regard. There are aspects I admire as well, such as the culture of heralding creativity more than any other culture I've been to as well, but I just can't get over how Americans seem to hold up stupidity as the golden standard.
It has nothing to do with actual intelligence. I have known plenty of smart, interesting people that just have no interest in being intellectual at all. It is completely the attitude that the country engenders. It transcends race, but it can sometimes be enhanced by it, as well. I've heard way too many stories of a black child who is intelligent being told his whole life that he isn't "black" and is acting "white" by being intelligent and getting good grades for me to think that this issue is immune to race, but white trash areas, hispanic, Italian, etc etc still ostracize children for being smarter than they are. So what happens is that smart people start acting stupid to fit in with their peers. They learn to appreciate stupid things, and revel in stupidity.
It goes back to British humour and why hardly any Americans understand it. British people seem to value intelligence. I think that's why Americans find them pompous. In addition to the "properness" of the British, but I think that is just outward appearance and the underlying attitude is that of a culture that values intelligence and critical thought. They aren't the only ones, but we grew out of Britain originally, so they incur our collective teenage angst backlash.
If you put the concept of absurdist British humour inside the frame of a culture that values intelligence and people who look for meaning in things, who think critically about what things mean, who actively participate in the thought of what is going on around them; all of a sudden, British humour starts to make sense, because if you take that culture and insert something that sort of makes sense a little bit, and throw in 10 things that make absolutely no sense at all, the psychology of British humor and its absurdity starts to become clear.
America will never get it though, because they are too busy paying football players to go to college and not go to class rather than pay for an inner city genius to get his degree and become the next Leonardo Da Vinci.
We'll just continue to sit on our couches until we are too stupid to remember how to grow food and start pouring Gatorade on the fields instead of water because they market it well and otherwise we would have to think logically. But hey, at least we are still the best in the world at throwing a ball.
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