June 17, 2006

updates

it's been a hazy past week involving re-organization, solitude, and monty python & the flying circus, more than anything else. oh, except maybe kraftwerk and susumu yokota.

last night i had a very nice conversation with my sister, who has ten times more common sense than i do, and thus, is several times more optimistic. two days ago i had a review with my doctor, and it loooks like my indicators are slowly disappearing, which is extremely good news. (yet, i really still shouldn't be eating hotdogs.) three days ago i flipped off a guy who lilly had cut off; it was a full-on manifestation of my type-A side, and it got me slightly nostalgic for cupertino. four days ago i got new bookcases. five days ago i realized, presently, egrets are in the Valley leg of their migration, and then i wondered if i should add "join an ornithologic organization" to my already way-to-long list of things-to-do. three days ago i woke up with this thought: are the worst afflictions of our place and time boredom and apathy? or is it loneliness?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I vote for boredom and apathy. Loneliness is more likely to be cured with more people, or maybe closer relationships. Also, it's a more 'natural' feeling -- loneliness is timeless and can affect anyone. Whereas I think boredom and apathy don't go away with more activities, and they are more associated with the rich, whether in an absolute sense or relatively speaking (i.e. Americans and Europeans). It's harder to feel bored and apathetic if you're busting your ass just to feed and house your family, like pretty much everyone else around you (I'm distinguishing between the poor in rich countries who at least have buildings around them as well as rich people nearby, and the poor in poor countries, who are more in danger of literally having nothing). Or maybe not. It's not a very articulate explanation. But I still vote for boredom and apathy as more characteristic of our time and place.

-Robin

Miss J said...

you are absolutely right. how do i cure myself of ennui?

oh right, i recall something about some subsistence farming ... something about non-progress ...

but, perhaps this is just some form of escapism; i am not facing the issue head-on. but, do i need all the geopolitical updates i can get? maybe, maybe not!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh yes, I'd forgotten the subsistence farming ... what decadent, youthful naïveté ... we should have talked to some people that do subsistence farming because that's all there is to do.

Imagine, the US is a country where poor people are obese and people choose to be subsistence farmer hippies for their spiritual well-being. It's amazing.

As I research India's economic reforms and how far they still have to go to claw their way out of poverty, I'm less sanguine about our anti-progress movement. The poverty-striken around the world may be bored too -- could picking through a garbage heap, for example, be extremely interesting? -- but it's nothing like the immobilizing ennui of overabundance.

Miss J said...

let's talk more over a delicious ice cream.

Anonymous said...

It's a date! :p

Can't wait to see you.

Miss J said...

i just realized you actually spelled "naivete" with the appropriate diacritics. wow.