Thursday, May 27, 2004
Not sure I get it, anymore
This blog stuff? Strange. It's not so much that people write about their lives; that much I can grasp. (Genius, huh?) What's baffling is the concept that anyone else would care to read about my life. Not even my friends (who, ostensibly must like me on some level or else they've been faking it for a long, long time) want to know this much about me. Guaranteed. Give 'em a call if you want to hear how disdainful they'd be about visiting my little slice of the online world.
Then again, I don't get much of anything -- the importance of social stature, the necessity for expensive clothing, families of four with houses roomy enough for 20 people, the war in Iraq, George Bush, American Idol, Survivor and SUV's. So. . .maybe I'm really an alien.
Since close examination of all things senseless to me will take too much time, let's settle on one issue I don't get.
Perhaps you can serve to enlighten:
This anti-smoking television campaign.
Oh, I get that smoking is harmful and addictive.
What I don't quite comprehend is why the ads focus on not smoking as if it were a way to assure long, healthy life. These sanctimonious people getting up and saying Big tobacco - you're not gonna get me! And tobacco off in the corner, stage left, snickering and mumbling something about a car crash. . . But, hey, feel better if you want, thinking not smoking makes you somehow impervious to death and disease.
Frankly, I want to enjoy life - not sit around worrying about what's gonna kill me.
It's the moment, folks. Right here, right now, am I happy? Did I share the things I loved with the people I loved (even if I did it between phlegmy coughing fits)? That's the only worthy yardstick.
If living longer means doing without things I enjoy -- uh, beer, sex, good music, cigarettes, old movies --- then by all means, let's knock off ahead of schedule.
Then again, I don't get much of anything -- the importance of social stature, the necessity for expensive clothing, families of four with houses roomy enough for 20 people, the war in Iraq, George Bush, American Idol, Survivor and SUV's. So. . .maybe I'm really an alien.
Since close examination of all things senseless to me will take too much time, let's settle on one issue I don't get.
Perhaps you can serve to enlighten:
This anti-smoking television campaign.
Oh, I get that smoking is harmful and addictive.
What I don't quite comprehend is why the ads focus on not smoking as if it were a way to assure long, healthy life. These sanctimonious people getting up and saying Big tobacco - you're not gonna get me! And tobacco off in the corner, stage left, snickering and mumbling something about a car crash. . . But, hey, feel better if you want, thinking not smoking makes you somehow impervious to death and disease.
Frankly, I want to enjoy life - not sit around worrying about what's gonna kill me.
It's the moment, folks. Right here, right now, am I happy? Did I share the things I loved with the people I loved (even if I did it between phlegmy coughing fits)? That's the only worthy yardstick.
If living longer means doing without things I enjoy -- uh, beer, sex, good music, cigarettes, old movies --- then by all means, let's knock off ahead of schedule.
