Not long ago, I was getting to know one of the new field organizers. A fairly common question here is, "What do you do in real life?" And when I asked him that, he described an interesting life. Snatches:

"I graduated ten years ago with a teaching certificate ... waited tables in Scotland ... protected badgers in Wales ... real estate deals in Texas ...

"Thirty-six hours ago, I got in my car in San Antonio and drove straight here to take over Lewis County, which so far has no working phone or internet."

He meant the county office, not the county itself. Although with some of the counties in West Virginia, it's a bit hard to tell.

Lida—my boss—bought me lunch at an Indian place. Good curry, and a sweet flat bread of some sort to finish. Very nice. She told me a story about South America: she had been traveling with a guy from Argentina, and when she wanted to go off and travel by herself for a while, their relationship ended very dramatically. He cut off all contact, until just a few days ago.

It all smacks of a Nora Roberts novel. She left with a ring he'd given her. Small little dark thing, the kind people only wear for sentimental value. And a few days ago she had a dream about the ring. Then, when she woke up, it was on her night stand, where she doesn't usually keep it. And so she wore it.

Sure enough, an email from the Argentinean came that very day.

Lida told me how odd it is to IM someone in Spanish. She mentioned that the Argentinean thought she was "too analytical." Of course, that is exactly what Colorado Boy says about me. The Argentinean and Colorado Boy apparently share an ability to simply go with the flow. To live, as Socrates would call it, and unexamined life. We puzzled over this. How is it possible to go without thinking, without trying to understand things? I don't really understand why anyone would want to, either. It's a good idea to analyze things.

I could have simply enjoyed a free lunch and a philosophical discussion. But if I didn't think about it, I wouldn't have realized what a wonderful thing a philosophical discussion and a free lunch are on your twentieth birthday.

Lunch and a philosophical discussion are good things. But you didn't HAVE to "think" about it to realize that. You CAN eliminate the middle man and just realize it. Of course that is thinking too in the broad sense. Anyway, you CAN be too analytical. As the son of an "analytaholic," you should be aware of this. I am just saying be careful, not don't think, try to find a god baance for you. Jews are especially prone to neurotic analysis ("woodyallenitis") and I think Albert Einstein was a celebrity because he was a non-neurotic Jew. This he did before there WERE celebrities. You don't hear of the Robert Morris Agency signing up physicists even today, so Einstein was really a remarkable person. I will have to send you his Zen koan sometime, Guy

Posted by  Anonymous @ 12:21 PM

 

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