I wake to be pulled along with the crowd which streams toward a separate tent. Somebody places a red tag and a lanyard about my neck and the crowd flows into an area labeled "VIP," dotted with tables. The tables contain glasses of wine or small food items which appear to have required significant assembly and application of cholesterol.
"Isn't this nice?" somebody to my left asks, raising a crimson glass of wine.
"Yes," I nod, understanding my cue.
"Is this," he asks, turning to another, more senior member of the company, "as good as it use to be in the good old days?"
"Well," the man looks uncomfortable, "In the really old days we use to just have BBQs and relax..."
"No, not then... you know, before, when they paid for really legendary parties... there use to be really nice things I hear..."
"Crab cakes?" a voice asks behind me. An approximately 27 year old woman stands in black clothing offering us a tray of bite-sized cakes. I smile at her and she returns the favor out of politeness but her eyes are glassy. I'm the "them" in "us and them" to her. The more senior man is looking edgy.
"I like BBQs," I said, taking a cake.
I make things for a living, and I planned to for the rest of my life. It occurs to me, however, that even if I invented something so efficient that everybody who currently works 8 hours a day only had to work 6, that within a few years people would be complaining of how hard it was to work a full 6 hours, and dream of a day when they would only have to work 4. The reality is, that despite the vast improvements in the quality of our lives over the past several thousands years, that humans as a whole are not any happier. We are healthier, better cared for, longer lived, and less of us do hard backbreaking manual labor for sure, but we are not particularly happier people for it. What then, is the point of all of this? What then, would actually be worthwhile?
If it is making people happy, what does make people happy? There is no way to explain this without dabling in cliches, but the idea of learning to be happy with what you have is not far off the mark. The power to remind people that their lives are wonderful and the world is beautiful would probably do more for a person's general happiness than a new iPhone, especially when you consider how rapidly the iPhone will be outdated.
I've sobered up now from the party (and received numerous stern lectures about donating blood then drinking) and I feel rather foolish. On the one hand my idea sounds completely laughable, and on the other hand my sober mind is unable to refute the logical conclusion I came to there, drunk and dehydrated, watching the acrobats dance in the cascading lights and bright costumes, watching something that really touched people and made them smile.
Perhaps if I want to do something truly meaningful with my life, I ought to quit my job and join the circus.
If it is making people happy, what does make people happy? There is no way to explain this without dabling in cliches, but the idea of learning to be happy with what you have is not far off the mark. The power to remind people that their lives are wonderful and the world is beautiful would probably do more for a person's general happiness than a new iPhone, especially when you consider how rapidly the iPhone will be outdated.
I've sobered up now from the party (and received numerous stern lectures about donating blood then drinking) and I feel rather foolish. On the one hand my idea sounds completely laughable, and on the other hand my sober mind is unable to refute the logical conclusion I came to there, drunk and dehydrated, watching the acrobats dance in the cascading lights and bright costumes, watching something that really touched people and made them smile.
Perhaps if I want to do something truly meaningful with my life, I ought to quit my job and join the circus.
Posts
