Overheard today: "I wasn't busy until I started doing something."
Nothing really "makes history" anymore. The first this. The biggest that. Milestones have become cheap. Nowadays, even the once-believed unbreakable history markers are so fragile that the only thing that inspires awe anymore is the notion that the old record holders lived in a completely different paradigm. Babe Ruth's "steroids" were beer and steak. Elvis's gold records were earned by sales of 78s. Jim Brown's rushing record was accomplished with nobody blocking for him.
Here's a way that technology has changed our lives that you'll never read about. My home internet goes down, so I walk to a nearby college, where I can use their computers via a library card. I arrive to swat my own forehead in frustration at my faulty recall; the college is closed for spring break. So I figure I'll stop at the mini-mart near my home for a snack. Their ATM is down, so I have nothing to buy with. I'm on foot, so other locales around town are a bit out of the question, time-wise. I wind up back home. Nothing accomplished, and a little worn out. This is called "thwarted at every tech-turn."
I went to a drive-thru for dinner on my way home after an exhausting day of jury duty ills. The young woman at the window was bright-eyed, with a glow of youth, and an earnest smile that lifted my spirits – even as she handed me my bag of neo-synthetic, edible death. (I ordered it, don't blame her.) Before home I had an errand to run as well, at a nearby department store. On the way out I was accosted by a different kind of eager young person: A something-teen zombie with a petition for me to sign. His eyes were aglow as well, with the agenda-fueled tribal unction of his "calling." I let my sarcastic side get away with me and came off sounding like a ranting kook, when all I actually had for him was mere disagreement. I pondered this the rest of my way home. Lifted up by a young woman earning her living, and brought down by a young man biding his time with annoying activism. Some people in our current political climate would actually scoff at the cute wage earner, and cheer that sleepwalking petition-peddling shit. Someday, it's likely that the work ethic shared by both I and that pixie will be his meal ticket. Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.
The most impressive pin a pilot can earn has to be that of the "Winged Astronaut." Air Force Major General Robert M. White won it for flying his jet fighter 59 miles, straight up. It is essentially the act of reaching outer space in a craft that is not designed to do that. It is the will of a pilot overcoming the limitations of the plane, and returning to the ground alive. Indeed, there's a lesson for life in that, somewhere.
If it doesn't fit, it doesn't matter how big the discount was.
Once in a while, a single piece of music will be played, at exactly the right time of mood... and for the next few days, only that song will suffice to play, in a loop.
We choose how important yesterday was, while tomorrow is important no matter what we think.
