Will I Get Used To It? I guess I should go to more concerts. For the first time in something like... Read>> Posted January 29, 2009
ON LIVING Get busy living or Get Busy Dy...
The leaves are almost all gone now. From my ringside seat here on the second floor I have been really amazed by the way eastern leaves seem to celebrate their impending death. It reminds me, actually, of the famous quote from the Shawshank Redemption where Morgan Freeman says "Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying." I don't think the average person is very inspired by that quote to get busy dying, so I assume generally taken as a rhetorical statement that promotes "really living". These leaves, on the other hand, are making the opposite decision and, well, even though I don't personally support this type of behavior, I am still glad that the leaves here don't go out with a whimper.
Speaking of going out... (bad connection I know - humor me here) Megan and I are about to go on a Thanksgiving break/vacation and so, I might be away from the blogging world next week. I hope to find internet signal on the Outer Banks (as in North Carolina) but, if not, I assume we will have a good time anyway.
To get back to the point of this post, I think more people should get busy living. This never struck me so profoundly as today, while I was sitting in the Social Security Administration Office.
For HOURS...
While getting coughed at by geriatrics, foreigners, snotty nosed children, and overweight people. It was like a snapshot of the world - all packed into one small room with nothing to do but moan.
Yeah... moan. The kids were moaning, the old folks were moaning, the young people were moaning BECAUSE other people were moaning. And everyone seemed to have a hacking cough (did I mention that already?). It was like the vestibule to Dante's Purgatory - we're not doomed yet, but everyone knows we're about to be.
Man. Everyone looked horrible. I'm sure I looked equally bad, but I tried to redeem the time by sketching interesting pieces of people on Social Security Administration brochures. So I felt better than they looked anyway.
At some point I had to step out of that hell hole (purgatory hole?) and I called my mother. She reminded me that my Aunt works for this very same government agency. I should probably call her to complain or something...
But it wasn't her fault was it? That 35 people from my county all showed up at the exact same time, without an appointment, and every one of them with a VERY COMPLICATED PROBLEM to fix except me. What's my problem? I lost my card and haven't been able to find it for years. Thinking about this in the office made me spontaneously worried that an identity thief might have taken it. Which is probably not true but in any case made me feel better about waiting in that horrible room with the horrible moaning people. In what parallel universe is being tortured like this the appropriate penalty for losing a SS card?
I just know I'll find it any day now. But I hope not. Because that would make this entire afternoon a waste.
And if I die after contracting the black plague in the Social Security Administration Office for no good reason...
Well, I would say 'that would kill me', but since I'd already be dead, I guess I'd just sit there.
But still... after leaving that place I have a whole new outlook on life. At least that's good right? Posted November 19, 2009 COMMENT ON THIS POST
