the other kind of estrangement

My dear friend Nathan finally got himself a phone and called me. I was then reminded of how important conversations with the right people can be.

He reminded me of a few things that seem crucial at the moment. We talked about the rat race of our generation: that everyone must either be working up at a job, moving to a new place, or traveling around the world. That there simply is no option to be in a place, unmoving, and that no one would ever want that anyway. No one is allowed to be content and happy with the place and time they inhabit.

We talked about the alienation induced by the industrial and techological revolutions. How things like cell phones, computers (internet especially), video games, and airplanes can, counterintuitively, actually pull us apart more than they bring us together. They can alienate us from our present place as well. The idea of air travel: you go into a metal tube and sit for four hours and then all of a sudden you are in a place that is completely different than the place you were before; but can you really understand that transition in four hours, or even two weeks, or a year?

But most of all he reminded of just how valuable good people are in one's life. Not just any good people, but those good people who can really converse with you, about anything and everything. They are extremely rare.

Familiarity vs. Estrangedness

es·tranged
–adjective
displaying or evincing a feeling of alienation; alienated.

fa·mil·i·ar·i·ty
–noun
thorough knowledge or mastery of a thing, subject, etc.


Something is wrong when you see the crescent moon and it does not elicit any sort of primal feeling, when it seems like just another fake backdrop to an all-too-familiar world. This undesirable state of being comes from a sort of estrangement from estrangement. Existence, for us self-conscious animals, should involve some sort of awe and wonder - it should not simply be another re-run of some popular television show. (We should not be masters of the universe.) For many, life has become too uninteresting, the world too unenchanted.

It is no question that the world is enchanted by life. Then shouldn't we feel this from time to time?

I know not everyone holds this to be dear to their philosophy, but perhaps everyone knows a similar problem: that it is so easy to fail to notice how short the time we have with those we love can be....

Transbayism

Last night was the night everyone likes to get drunk, celebrate. Funny how the change of a digit can affect one so much....

I did not get drunk, nor even have a drink. I did stand near the San Francisco fireworks and I did see friends. Although I did not do that which I had planned, which was going to my dear friend Pamela Grewal's family's party in Newark (East Bay).

I missed dancing with Indian grandmothers, Pamela, Angie, Mo, and countless others, including Pamela's parents. Of course I learned important lessons last night. I learned that you cannot let the distance of the bay get in the way of a fantastic voyage. The distance and rigor of a trip or activity sometimes measure its grandeur and goodness.

But I will not wallow away in regret; I will simply live my life better after having learned my lessons.