(no subject)

[lagilman]

"the moral of the story is that we're here on Earth to fart around...we're dancing animals..." -- Kurt Vonnegut.


I really, really love that quote. I really love the matter-of-fact way he said it, too (speaking of why he'd rather go out to buy one envelope, and interact with people, than go on-line and order an entire box of envelopes)


So many people forget that. They're so focused on the rat race -- or finding a way out of the rat race -- that they forget that it's not all about winning the most toys, but watching other people play with them, too.

Or so it's always seemed to me, anyway.

Comments

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

I'd love to not focus on the unpacking of boxes rat race. Speaking of which, what to do about tomorrow? E-mail me, or call if I gave you our number. I think I gave it to you at some point...

[lagilman]

Eventually, the boxes will be unpacked. Or you'll decide that you don't need the stuff that's in there, after all.

E-mail sent.

Dancing animals

[douglas-clegg.livejournal.com]

Laura Anne -

Great quote and post. I hadn't been to the movies in months, so finally went yesterday to see two in a row -- A History of Violence and Flightplan (enjoyed them both.)

But what I found I enjoyed the most was sitting with a bunch of other people in a big room to experience the movie. When we're home watching TV, it's nice, but the experience of the theater was fantastic -- forget the screen, the sound, the movies, even. Sitting with strangers from the area was great. Luckily, of course, nobody was obnoxious or noisy.

At one point, the movie had been positioned too low on the screen so we lost some subtitles in Flightplan. I got up and went out to ask them to reposition it. When I got back to my seat, the lights came up and the movie stopped. I felt a bit awkward, so I just turned to everyone in the theater and said, "My fault -- I asked them to raise the movie a bit so we wouldn't miss the subtitles if any others came up."

And kids from 15 to 60 all said great things, thanked me, and were happy about it. And when I looked at them, I thought, Movie-goers, by and large, are great people. We want to be in that place together and experience that movie even though we don't know each other.

Long way toward saying, what you're mentioning today resonated with me right now in a way I hadn't thought about before this week.

Too often, I do just order online and then the only person I might see is the UPS guy (okay, this is good, too) -- but there is definitely something to be said for going out into the world, mingling with people in the community as we do day-to-day business. And of course, the theater is not just what's on stage, but also what's in the stands.

Thanks for posting this. I always enjoy your blog.

Doug