So I’ve been taking a hiatus from blogging recently. One might assume that I have found other things that I found more fulfilling than spilling my guts into cyberspace only to be read by a miniscule (but nonetheless highly intelligent) subset of humanity. Perhaps I have dedicated my free to time to pursuits geared more toward directly helping my fellow man—volunteering in a food bank, or perhaps tutoring youngsters from the inner city. Alternatively, I could have been devoting more of my effort to my work as a cutting edge researcher in the hopes of expanding on the already impressive breadth of accomplishments so that I might ensure a Nobel, or, at the very least, a MacArthur award. Maybe I was improving my golf game in the hopes of finally being able to attempt to gain a spot on the Champions Tour.
I am tempted to leave this as an exercise for the reader, but I am sure that you’ve all guessed the real reason. I am, in essence, quite lazy. It seems that I would use pretty much any excuse to avoid writing. I knew it was bad when the televised version of the World Poker Tour held my interest for nearly a half hour. To be sure, I have had a pretty busy couple of months at work. The past two weeks, for example, were spent preparing four scientific posters for the annual Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting which takes place next week in DC. It takes a fair amount of time to put together an attractive graphic layout, not to mention making up all the data. (To quote Foghorn Leghorn “Ah say, it’s a joke, son”).
Actually, I don’t think I am all that lazy. The truth is that I really didn’t have that much to say that I thought would be all that interesting. What is interesting about the speed with which information now gets conveyed, is that it becomes increasingly difficult to have a thought that is somewhat unique. Like everyone in the US (and beyond, I gather), I followed the Presidential election very closely. Trust me when I tell you that I had tons of pithy and incisive comments to make about the debates, Palin, the environment, elitism (again), etc. But as I began to write them down, I soon realized that they simply weren’t all that original. I understand that not having novel viewpoint doesn’t necessarily preclude one from speaking one’s mind—Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity would be out of work if that were the case—but it just didn’t seem right to me.
I also found that when I would go on a rant in with my friends and family, it basically turned into a “group think” in the worst way possible. The sad fact is that I live in a part of the country and work in a place and live with people who basically think pretty much the same as I do. (I understand that that might be scary thought for some of you, but rest assured that most of these people are otherwise quite normal.) While it is sometimes nice to get a “call and response” type interaction going, it is less fulfilling that getting a good discussion going among people who honestly disagree.
Which brings me to my in-laws. One of the few good arguments I had about certain aspects of the election occurred when Jim and Dena visited a few weeks back. At one point, we needed to get actual facts to bolster our discussion. I used Cha Cha, which is a free service that allows you to phone in or SMS any question and get an answer via SMS in a few minutes (did you know, for example, that the top 5% of US wage earners pay 57% of the taxes?). In any event, that was fun discussion.
But back to Jim and Dena’s visit. Once we had settled our argument (I won), we decided to go and visit the Institute of Contemporary Art at its new home on Fan Pier in Boston. There was an installation by Tara Donavan that is a must see. She basically takes common objects—toothpicks, plastic cups, cellophane tape, styrofoam cups—and makes absolutely beautiful pieces out of them. I can’t remember an exhibit where all four of us were so smitten.
After we left the museum, we wandered down to Rowe’s Wharf and then onto the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which is the new parkland area built on top of the big dig. What we saw while there gave me hope in mankind. If the people who work on signs have this kind of sense of humor, then perhaps all is not lost.
In any event, I promise to post more often. And the letter is in the mail.
