Life in a Glasshouse
Radiohead, one of the greatest bands ever to hit the music scene, came out with a CD in 2001 called “Amnesiac.” This is the closing track on that CD.
I find it excellent music for sleeping in on overcast days, sipping coffee at the table with a robe on, talking about whichever and whatever. The song was included in the 2006 movie “Children of Men,” a film about widespread infertility and the ensuing panic following the realization that our whole gig would soon be up – humanity would be completely erased within approximately 90 years. The movie ends with a surprise-pregnancy, however, and a quick escape out of the hands of the government and into a boat called “Tomorrow.” I highly recommend the film.
There is a girl in one of my classes who has a handicap; something wrong with one of her legs. When she gets out of class, there is a golfcart and driver waiting on her, to drive her to her next class, or to her dorm, wherever she needs to go.
Unrelatedly, I saw an old friend this weekend. She was a girl who obviously had at one point been interested in me, but I saw no-one else but [Girl A]. [Old friend] and I are horrible at keeping in touch, our both being sort of passive about social interaction and maintaining vast networks of friends.
I was at one point part of an organization called “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” Several members of The League were commissioned by the Harold Perrin campaign committee to hoist signs on street corners for hours at a time, encouraging voters on election day to vote for Perrin. I signed on, thinking “Sure, okay, I can write these down as volunteer hours on some whatever resume when the time comes for that.” We campaigned, raised signs, and Perrin ended up winning the election. How much of that was our doing, who knows?
I knew nothing about Perrin. I still don’t know anything. Honestly, I couldn’t care less whether he won or not. I was getting out of school for some reason, so I said yeah, awesome, I’ll wave a sign around at passing cars. Great. It didn’t occur to me at all that my absent-minded volunteering to support a cause I cared nothing about was really hurting a friend of mine whose father was running in the election against Harold Perrin. I won’t mention their names, as I’d hate anyone to get any sort of unwanted attention from this, but they were made quite upset by the results of the election; I mean obviously – they wanted to win. But it’s just so strange how I was pulled into rooting against them without my even having the presence of mind to see how my actions were really affecting everything. This person is my friend! It’s one of the strangest situations I’ve ever been in. If I could go back in time, honestly, I would have just gone to school that day. Let the politically-minded be involved in politics. I’ll stay over here.
Goodbye.
Incidentally, my name is Evan Barber.
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