Watched pot

Speaking only for myself, I find that contemplating things -- whether one's own emotions or grand questions about the world -- has a lot to do with perspective. What I mean is,

It isn't so much that we got closer as that her face just got bigger and by the time it was taking up my whole view I figured my face had gotten bigger too

, there is a cost to transitioning between different states of mind. I guess in a way that is the point of meditation.

I don't need to tell you what this is about you just start on the inside and work your way out

Or perhaps it is better to say, or more accurate to say, that it is a question of focus. There is a difference between seeing and seeing... between hearing and listening... as we focus the blurry curves come into sharp jagged relief. Was today a good day or a bad day for me, for the world? The market was up, but actually it was up and down and up and down and up. Hitting refresh on the stock quotes is surfing the black-and-white pawns of the cable network O. J. JonBenet Osama bin Hussein tipping turning point men.

Maybe the point is the closer you are the more you see the less you see.

Maybe the point is you have to step back from yourself from the world from your hopes from your fears to see things clearly.

Or maybe -- this is what I thought at work earlier -- time is more precious than we think, and as we realize this we become more selective about the quality of how that time is spent.

If you don't have a point to make don't sweat it you make a sharp one being so kind.

And I'd sure appreciate it.

I wanted to quote something from a book that I have but it turns out that it's the wrong book and I can't find the quote now. What it was about was being realistic about how much time you have in the day, but you may think you have a lot the once you add up all the little things there isn't a whole lot of time left.

I don't think that's really the point, or least interesting one.

I talked to Tyson recently about the way we consume art and entertainment, sort of similar to what Angela was saying. And having quite a lot of free time on my hands here in Houston, I think a lot about how best to spend it.

And I also think back to discussions that I had with Katherine about balancing taking things in (for example reading) and producing things.

And in the context of blogging, I wonder if in an attempt to be constantly producing content, we fall prey to the same phenomenon at work in the news business... allowing the agenda to be dictated by the government and Hollywood.

Last night, I watched "All the Real Girls". It reminded me in a way of "Ruby in Paradise", one of my favorite films of all time. There is something that I love about films that aren't about anything. Not in a Seinfeld sort of way, but in a everyday life sort of way. Ghost World is another example. There's probably a sub genre name for this,...

In the past week a couple of times I've just stopped. Pulled into a parking lot, got out of the car, and just watched people. If you tune into it, the highs and lows of everyday life are a roller coaster.

Maybe we need the roller coaster, but we want it at a safe distance where we can get off whenever we want.

I don't know, I really don't. I think what I find the strangest of all, though, is thinking about Mary and MaryEtta, and about the simple contemplation of everyday beauty. That and its apparent contrast with the television echo chamber. That's not the strange part; I've always thought of that distinction as a distinction between the essential beauty of nature and the alienation of mankind from it. But living in the city, I can't help but look at the people scurrying around as much the same as the birds and squirrels and the cars and the steel and glass. Ugly, dramatic, glorious, simple. As David would say, man is nature.

And if that is so, how do you square the asphalt jungle with the Orwellian bread and Circus?

Oh the title, didn't really work that in. Arcade Fire. If you stare at something it gets bigger and bigger, but it doesn't go away when you stop looking. What are we supposed to look at? What we supposed to think about?

That's what I'm thinking about anyway.