There’s a short movie there (with some cool cartoon art) that talks about where all our stuff comes from, the way we attempt satisfy our emotional needs through shopping, and how much waste we produce. I’ll admit that it made me cry a little bit. There’s hope, though, in the choices we make. We have so much power as “consumers.”
One of the most interesting points to me is that we are, on the whole, not any happier by having more and more stuff. In fact, according to the movie, our “national happiness” has declined steadily since the 50s, which is when our national happiness peaked. There are scientific studies that show this (I’m curious how it’s measured). It also squares with my own observations (though those don’t start until the late 80s).
At work, I now and then have to drive (e.g., to pick up a new computer). One of the company cars has a pretty sweet XM receiver and a bunch of MP3s. While on a mission with my coworker Michael, we came across a hip hop act called Fort Minor, which I had never heard before.
It’s all good, but I’m really into this one particular song: Slip Out the Back. It resonates. Of course, it’s not the perfect soundtrack to my life, but I identify strongly with the overall meaning (as I perceive it), and certain lines can make me cry.
“Forget perfect–I’m trying not to be worthless. Since I last saw you, I’ve been looking for a purpose.”
“I don’t need to tell you that life isn’t fair. It doesn’t care. It arbitrarily cuts off your air. And like you, I want someone to say it’s OK. In the truest part of hearts, everybody’s afraid. We’re just under appreciated and overwhelmed, fighting so hard to hide our fear that we’re scaring ourselves.”
“Slip out the back before they know you were there. At the worst you’ll see nobody cares.”
“Please remember this isn’t how hoped it would be…”
“That’s why I slipped out the back before you know I was there. I know you felt unprepared… That’s why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there, and I know the way I left wasn’t fair.”
If the video below won’t play, click here to search YouTube for another version.
About a month ago, I stumbled across a group called The Mazamas. More accurately, I stumbled across their web site. They are a “mountaineering education organization” in Portland and organize all kinds of hikes, mountain climbing, snow shoeing, etc.
The thing that got me involved are the Street Rambles. These are two hour walks starting in NW Portland that go to various places in the city. They happen every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-8pm, rain or shine. Don’t be late! There are slow, moderate, fast, and super fast groups. I’ve done four rambles so far, and I feel like I’ve seen more of the city in the past month than I have in the past three and half years that I’ve lived in Portland. We’ve been all over Southwest and into North and Northeast. During drier weather, there are more walks in Forest Park and on other trails.
I’m really enjoying getting out and talking with (pseudo) random people. They are diverse, friendly, and inclusive and there is a sense of community, even if it only lasts for those two hours.
Today I did my first super fast ramble. It was super fun. It was about seven miles of hills, stairs, trails, and interesting neighborhoods. The midpoint of the walk was riding the Portland Aerial Tram down from OHSU (this walk is known as a “Tramble”). It’s like some kind of amusement park ride, and it’s free to go down. The view is spectacular, and the first time was quite a thrill–suspended by a mere cable (a long cable) hundreds of feet up.
This is Shorts, quite possibly the cutest, sweetest kitten ever (other than her sister, Flubby). OK, I’m sure I’m just saying that because she’s my cat, but whatever… Click the image to see the full size version. I took this photo with my iPhone.
I’ve decided to abandon Mephisto for running this site, since the Mephisto project appears to have been abandoned. Plus I heard that Ruby on Rails really sucks after all. Who knew? On top of all that, WordPress is simpler to deal with and doesn’t crash all the time. Blah blah…
If you don’t know what the hell the above paragraph is on about, that’s OK. The gist of it is, I’m changing the software that runs this site. The practical effect is that A) the style is different and B) all the old posts haven’t been moved to this new site yet.
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