Thursday, March 01, 2007

How Bizarre.

The world in which we live is strange altogether – that is, a western, free, and technologically enabled world is a strange world altogether. I sit in an airport and think of how strange the whole experience is. I can fly vertically across the country and back in less than a day. More than that, I can jump into a machine as big as a home [larger than many homes] that is propelled by high octane flora and fauna decompositions and launch higher into the air than any bird will fly. When I touch down, I look to see a myriad of individuals with ear deformities who talk to themselves…and who apparently answer themselves in what seems to be an absolute epidemic of schizophrenia.

More amazing than anything is that I can do all of this without being shot! The sort of social contract we live under allows that the government doesn’t extort unreasonable funds from me as I travel from state to state, that individuals don’t require bribes from me to travel, and that I’ll [in all probability] return safely home.

There are times where I try to put myself into the shoes of the past and imagine what folks would think if they were to see us in such a situation. There are times where I am amazed as a denizen of the present to think that such an area of peace can be maintained in such a world of turmoil.

2 comments:

Jason Harmon said...

..."there was this large steel winged creature with strangely dressed men and women in its belly.... I don't really understand, I'm just a simple caveman..."

that's an old Phil Hartman bit from SNL... caveman lawyer.

I remember having similar thoughts while walking around campus... "If I wanted to shoot a lot of people, this would be the place to do it... no one would be here to stop me." It was kind of a scary revelation, all kinds of awful things could happen anywhere and its absolutely amazing that they don't happen more often.

susan said...

Jason, thoughts like that are symptomatic of O.C.D. You should see someone about that. :-)

Gene, I thought something similar when David and I were sitting in the Big Church this Sunday. There was a speaker from Cuba talking about the church he runs from his home. I was wondering how weird it must be for him to look out at us all fat and happy in this huge and obviously churchy building. We've such freedom here and now.

Su.