[lit-ideas] Re: Dis Traction of August
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 16:19:39 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Aug 20, 2004 12:28 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Dis Traction of August
>It makes me wonder that if it's so wonderful being young, why must being
>young be mood altered? Makes me all the happier to be 56.
I was wondering about this just yesterday. "Primarily -- why don't I want
to grow up?" I'm reminded of a line from a song that says "we're only
immortal for a limited time." How wonderfully paradoxical! I think this
"limited" time has a span that largely depends on the person choosing to
acknowledge their dreadful mortality. For most of us, we eventually find
ourself walking down Rue De Wakening with a healthy dose of realite in the
form of a friend's death, a parent's death, a child's death, or some other
stark reminder that people DO die -- including us.
<neck-breaking segue>
I have a small engineering consulting business. Our customers are mainly
manufacturing facilities who need help renovating/modifying existing
chemical/physical processes of one sort or another. The common ingredient:
they all make distractions: distractions from this sad, wretched life which
can be very fulfilling if you don't stop to wonder about it. And I help
them (the producers of our excellent distractions) do it more efficiently
and more economically.
Anyway, last morning, I was out on a trip to a local spirits manufacturer
(Crown Royal, Seagrams etc) and as I was inspecting the roof beams and
deciding where to run conduit, I began to do some rough calculations about
how MUCH people really like alcohol. It's not just sprogs in their 20s.
This place was bottling 250 (26 ounce) bottles per minute on ONE of their
filling lines and they have five different lines. This amounts to a street
value of about 1.5 Million dollars an hour. And they run 24/6. And this is
just one little plant for only about 20 different drinks.
In a fit of Donneian epiphany, I suddenly realized that I have a serious
mental problem -- I'm conscious. And for every micro-second that I AM and I
don't have something else to think about, I think about the fact that I'm
conscious. It's horrible and so I try to distract myself. Yes, it took 38
years for me to actually pin-down what this tortuous feeling is; but I'm
glad I did. Don't "they" say that "realizing the problem is the first step
in solving it"? But I don't recommend it to anyone, so, if you are reading
this email, please don't try to understand it or it will mean the end of
what you used to try and substantiate as "my life". It's not yours.
On Tuesday, I'm going to a factory that makes gel-caps -- medication. I'm
sure THAT will also blow my mind. There's another song about meaningless
pursuit of fame and fortune for one cover. To quote Shel Silverstein (a la
Dr. Hook) perhaps my "mind's already been blown -- Like the blow that'll
get ya when ya getting your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone." But
at least they are working TOWARDS something.
The fact is (if I am permitted to use such macho, scientific words) that a
lot of people need a constant impediment to the realization that they are
alive. Because that means that they are going to die. And that is scary
shit. It's ironical, scary shit that we waste our life worrying about
dying. In "The Shawshank Redemption", Morgan Freeman's character "Red"
lives by the credo "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'". I guess that's very
optimistic for a lifer. Hell, most of us who are "free" don't even want
that chance. We are doing life, but not the right way. Of course, as we
have seen in the last week, it's all meaningless. I never wanted to be a
model, but I sure am maudlin today.
A.A. From all my varied and sundry readings on different topics, including
what makes us tick, I have gleaned the following, mostly useless, observations.
First, restating what you said, I think you hit it, alcohol is only one of
many distractions universally used by nearly everyone. Two, I think life
itself is a distraction, especially when it's done to excess; notably, Morgan
Freeman's "get busy livin'." I would go one step further and say that
ultimately fear of dying is also but a distraction.
Michael Chase nobly comments on what philosophy can do about it. My personal
opinion is philosophy can't do much, unless it can answer the $64,000 question:
distraction from what? Personally, I think the answer is buried in one of
Ogden Nash poem's, but since I can't formulate in words exactly what it is I
felt when I read it, I will stop here without saying which poem.
Andy Amago
working on my blowing my mind,
still looking for a father figure (but not George Michael),
between drinks,
I'm a rolling stone
p
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
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