I was walking to the mailbox yesterday evening, lost in a daydream I’d been wandering through for hours. I looked up at the sky and daydreamed about how cool it would be if I looked up at the sky and had a true moment of awakening, a flash of clarity about my place in the universe. I reached into the mailbox and pulled out a coupon flier and a bill for my cell phone. I walked by the recycling bins, dropped off the coupon flier, and shuffled back to my apartment.
I’m not sure why I’m bothering to relate such a dull moment, except that it captures the spirit of my existence over the past few days. This morning I watched the Today Show while I sipped my coffee. I kept thinking “This show is just awful” —yet I continued to watch. When I turned the TV off, I did experience a tiny spark of clarity. I had been entranced, caught up in a web of illusion. Suddenly, with the push of a button, I was in another place, rising from my couch, rushing out the door to catch the bus before slipping into another daydream.
I’ve been bothered lately by the news reports of red-faced, pea-brained yahoos squawking nonsense at town hall meetings, parroting what they hear on Fox News, and now toting guns to presidential events. Of course, these people think they’re in the right, and it’s people like me who are really nuts. Just like it seems crazy to Americans how Iraqis and Afghanis blow themselves up every day, yet we may seem like a bunch of dangerous lunatics from their perspective.
We’re all lost in our daydreams. Almost all of the time, we’re caught up in some web of illusion. Worst of all, some of us are well aware of this, and even know precisely what to do to snap out of it—yet choose not to most days.
What can I tell you? I’ve spent most of my life daydreaming. I’ve rescued women from being raped, fought off knife-wielding criminals, performed on the Tonight Show, told off my boss, been interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine – all in the past week, on my way home from work.
Now maybe, from someone else’s perspective, I was just riding the bus, in silence, with a far off look in my eyes. Maybe. But I doubt anyone was paying attention.
Cool way to look at life… through daydreams! I, too, am often a superwoman in my day dreams. I can do anything!!! I go to sleep daydreaming that I am someone else, usually someone who makes a big contribution to the world!!! I have been a phenomenal guitar player, a ground breaking scientist, a government agent who saves the world from some sinister person, etc…. My character changes, depending on what book I am currently reading.
Boshe,
Funny story… I called to talk to you today, not thinking your number had changed. Of course it had, right? Your old cell phone now belongs to Logan’s Roadhouse! I almost asked for Bob! So here’s what I was calling about: Do the names Andrew Newberg, Mark Gold, Robert Scaer, and Cardwell Nuckols mean anything to you? It’s a conference in Vegas and was wondering if you thought it would be worth my time? Here’s the link:http://www.usjt.com/neuro09/
Let me know what you think. THAT’S what I am daydreaming about today…
larryvaughan@mac.com
The people who are showing up at the town-hall meetings certainly DO think you are the nutty one, and the reasons are are a BIG nut in their minds are the same ones that make you think that they are somehow characterized by the FEW who have shown up with firearms. The guys with firearms thought that was a good idea because of the conservative (and, I’m sure, arguable) belief that all of our other rights (such as speech) stem from the right to bear arms. It was very few people, and I’d bet that most of those guns weren’t even loaded. This is an example of a small group of politically-minded people thinking some form of expression is a great idea that is actually counter-productive to the big picture. Sure, cynical people like nancy pelosi will seize on things like this to characterize all tea-party types as folks that want to intimidate with firearms, and are, worse, quick to do so — but even people like you who try to be fair-minded find it all too emotionally satisfying to simplify-up the small government folks. I spot this with alacrity because I know all too well the history of what flag-burning did to hurt the anti-war side during vietnam, and when I was a campus lefty myself our anti-gulf-war I organizers made sure we at least superficially cleaned up our act because they realized that the nixon folks were able to characterize the antiwar movement as a bunch of dirty, underemployed hippies because, well, they had a lot of newsfootage of dirty, enderemployeed hippies burning flags and such… pissing off many in the Great American Middle….