[wordup] The State Fair Closes In 20 Minutes

[Adam Shand]

This is great, thanks Mike!

Adam.

From: http://www.urbanhonking.com/kmikeym/archives/2005/11/ 
the_state_fair.html

The State Fair Closes In 20 Minutes
By kmikeym

Moving forward is inevitable. Time pushes us forward, and so that is  
a given. So we remember things, in order to revisit them. If there is  
a subject we continually revisit, we eventually become something of  
an expert in it. But by revisiting the same thing over and over we  
have to spend less time on things happening as we move forward.

Sometimes I feel like I'm going to the State Fair and I only have 20  
minutes until they close. Rides, food, live entertainment, the freak  
show, a boxing match... you can't do everything, even though no one  
thing is any more or less interesting than anything else. It's  
paralyzing. The only way to see everything is to experience nothing.

In so many ways the internet makes it a lot easier. It's like going  
to the State Fair with a group of friends. Josh, you go play the  
games you can't win. Steve, you go hit the rides. John, you hit the  
haunted house and the freak show. I'm going to check out the boxing  
match and we'll all meet up near the food. Then you can come together  
and talk about the experiences. As long as everyone fully experiences  
their share, and then fully discloses the experience, we all win.

Knowing there is no way to delve into everything, we can allow  
ourselves to pursue the things that most interest us and we have the  
best opportunities for, and we can read and watch about the things  
that we aren't doing. But there is a problem when everything is the  
same...

I find the idea of delivering a pizza to be enthralling. I can easily  
trace this back to Snow Crash, which surely romanticized the idea,  
but I don't think it has stuck with people the same way I have  
focused on it. I see a car with the glowing Pizza Hut roof attachment  
on it and I feel a pang of jealously. And yet, I know that driver has  
no where near the zeal I do for his job. He probably gets paid  
minimum wage plus tips and is bummed he has to work friday nights. He  
probably doesn't have a laptop, GPS, and mapping software and time  
himself on every run... That's too bad.

The idea of capturing moments of life is what attracts me to  
blogging. I want everyone to have a blog, and want an honest  
portrayal of their life and experiences. Don't tell me about what you  
are going to do, tell me about what you did, how it felt, and how it  
changed you. What did you think about and how are you going to react it?

When you think about it, we're all entering the State Fair in the  
last twenty minutes. We need to get out there and make it happen. But  
you can't flit from place to place, you have to go deep. Really deep.  
Ride the roller coaster several times, talk to the people running it,  
find out where it was made... become the expert, and tell us all  
about it. 20 minutes... That's all you got.

This idea is sort of depressing me. But also motivating me.

Posted on: Thu, Nov 10 2005 5:41 PM