Soapbox

Even though I actively participate in the phenomenon known as a commute five days a week, it still mystifies me at times. People regress under stress. They become like a pack of animals when they drive on the freeway. Are people in such a hurry because they love their jobs that much or does everyone sleep until the last possible moment?

I am sure that there are numerous studies devoted to this kind of social activity. The most blatant example would be the media driven catch phrase of road rage, but I guess that what I want to know more about is how we got to this point. I am struck by the thought that what we consider normal today was not even possible a hundred years ago. The automobile as we know it did not exist before this century. I just can not imagine the commute being done at the same stress level with horse and carriage.

Maybe America needs some major energy crisis where people are forced to ride bicycles to work. They already commute on bicycle in China. Wait a minute. This is sounding like the plot of a bad nineteen seventies movie called cold turkey or something. Without a doubt no more cars would eliminate massive amounts of air pollution and make the general populace more physically fit. I think people refer to that place as utopia.

Amidst the recent onslaught of email that I received through diary-l one comment stayed with me. Someone said that when we are young we think that what we know is revolutionary and then we suddenly realize that what we thought of as being unique has in fact been said thousands of time before by other people. This trait carries on in the online journals and I agree to a point, but I donít see this as a negative because I have heard the same thing said about painting.

It has been said that nothing new can ever be done in painting, because every possibility has been explored. It has become a dead art. My response is why do people still continue to paint when nothing new can come of it? People continue to write and paint, because creativity will never go away. Art and the expression of human emotion will endure as long as humanity endures.

I believe the main point of the comment was that people mellow with age and realize that they know far less about the world than they thought they knew when they were younger. Some people might even call this process maturing. Its hard to rage against the machine when you are raising a family of four.

I have started to appreciate the smaller things in life again. An example would be the way Pepper gets so excited when I tie my shoes in the morning. Every morning she is right there when I tie my shoes. Having her head pressed against my boot as I try to lace it up does not help me at all, but its mildly amusing to watch. At first this used to bother me, but now I expect it every morning. Its become part of my morning ritual and she never seems to get tired of it.

A few months ago I decided that I was clearly out of touch with the world of athletic shoes and switched over to the world of hiking boots instead. I still have no idea why athletic shoes have become so bulky and bloated over the years. Oh, I know that for many people they are a major fashion or status statement, but I could care less about sports so they hold very little appeal for me. I just want something that is comfortable and will last on my feet.

Now that I look back at this entry I could say that all of this has been said before and probably better by someone else, but I won't.