136) We happened upon a young couple who seemed to be living out of their car, i.e. living well. I commented to them that their life, or at least this day, looked enjoyable. A few seconds later we happened upon a whole group of people living like these first two, and they all seemed to be living well. Seeing this group did not change how I felt about the first couple I saw.
137) The drive into town was beautiful; it hardly mattered that we drove in on the freeway. We stopped at a well-constructed scenic view; it was hardly scenic.
138) From time to time, I'll drink exactly the wrong amount of great beers. My body and my mind will then prevent me from falling asleep. My thoughts are social and sleep does not come easy. The great beers are an elixir.
139) To be consistently impressed is a good way to be.
After being inside the matrix for so long, I had a suspicion that there could be life on the outside. A car is one way to go about it. The point is that one gets on the outside. To be unplugged from the tasks that make us productive factors.
ReplyDeleteRegarding (139) maybe surprised is preferrable to being impressed. The concept of surprise as that which fractures habits, breaks them open. Disruption is maybe a form.
ReplyDeleteOne of the practical ways of experiencing surprise or disruption (the breaking of habit) is to live in a new way. Living from a car would be an example. I have tried it only infrequently and much prefer living from a tent. But engagements with new forms of life, whatever they are, can be interesting until new habits form.
Not to denigrate habits either. A writing project, for instance, requires a life of habit while being undertaken. To be continually surprised/disrupted makes it difficult to focus on a sensitive project.
I didn't want to comment, but I have to. The point of 136); it wasn't to argue the merits of living one way or another, it was that I saw something, maybe it was a way of living, that seemed to be a good way to live. There are many ways to live; to live as a gypsy, with a car, in the southeast, had an appeal to me. It looked like a good life to me.
ReplyDeleteTo be impressed can indeed be, to be: surprised. At times to be surprised is to be impressed. At the time I wrote 139) I felt impressed. An impression had been made on me, a favorable impression.