Celebrating in Annoyance – Thoughts from July 17, 2023

Today is a big day at my work. July 17, 1955, D-land opened. I can still recite the dedication from memory. I memorized it before I came to work here. Memorizing things was something I did back then. It has reached my permanent memory. After eighteen years of working here, I can say that. I say it periodically to test myself and it’s always there. They had burgers from The Habit for us, but I ate my regular meal. I was texting with Patti and and she said at least three times, “I like the habit.” Before you think I can’t take a hint, I knew she would like me to bring it home for her, but she wouldn’t get it until the next day. A burger is not something that reheats well. It would also be extremely difficult to get home.

On these days of celebration and getting free stuff, everyone seems much happier than normal. I’m the opposite on days like these. I just see unhealthy people get rewarded with unhealthy treats. It’s the last thing they need, but it’s the first thing they crave. This is the story of my life. When everyone else is celebrating, I’m just annoyed by the whole thing. As my Jamaican vacation proved, I can still eat all the unhealthy foods. As much as I was hoping unhealthy food would disgust me after eating a vegan diet, I still crave it.

Food has never been my favorite topic of conversation. Some people can talk endlessly about their favorite restaurant, bar, or meal. I shut down when I hear these conversations starting. I can wax nostalgic about my favorite childhood food, but I have no interest in where I can get those things today. My burning point is when they start giving directions to their favorite eatery. When I get really annoyed, I ask about the healthiness of the food. They say it’s unhealthy but good. There’s so much healthy food that tastes excellent. Why would you only focus on how good something tastes and stop there. What you eat matters just as much as how good it tastes, if not more.

Sometimes, you just need to start writing a paragraph before you even know what you’re going to talk about. This is one of those times. I started writing intending only to write. I have accomplished that mission. When you set a goal and you accomplish it, what happens next? Do you keep writing until a topic just naturally comes up? What if nothing ever does? This is when you just keep writing and let the words speak for themselves. This is also when you realize words don’t work like that. It’s frustrating, but isn’t that the point. Your failure at finding a topic is the topic. You unwittingly solved the problem without knowing what the problem was. It’s a win win for everyone, unless you use business jargon. That’s the actual point. There is no point. Writers write. Readers read. We’re all just doing our jobs, but only some of us get paid for it.

The metaverse brought that last paragraph to you. Your imagination presents this paragraph in pure technicolor. If it doesn’t appear colorful to you, you have no imagination. People who have no imagination make me sad. I can only imagine what that’s like. Imagine all the people living for today … wait, that’s not imagination, it’s memory. We use memory in imagining, but it’s a random access version of it. Imagining yourself in a place is not really imagination. Imagining a place for someone else to be is imagination. Imaginative people are collectors of possibilities. You first must know what’s possible. Those are where your memories come in. Imagining something is not a matter of putting disparate things together. It is about creating a reality that doesn’t exist from a past that did.