Comings and Goings

We (that's the royal "we," by the way, but I won't get into all that again) like to think we're all impulsive, happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care, come-what-may, come-as-you-are, as-the-mood-strikes-you, do-what-you-feel-like, and perhaps six or seven other hyphenated, generally fun qualities. Don't we?

We find, upon reflection, that too much change, in too short a time, does not please us at all.

Too many people gone: and this afternoon, randomly, a guy walking by comes and joins us at break. He ducked in because of the rain. He was young, non-smoking, and normal-looking, so at first I was pleased; but then he talked rather an excessive deal about his job, and seemed disinclined to listen to everyone else talking about silly, frivolous, random things. Not Break Group Material, and that's that. Begone!

Why we suddenly think we're Queen of the Break Group, we are not certain.

Today I hit the hike-and-bike at lunch for the first time in quite awhile. It, too, has changed: not much, but the rerouting that was done nearly a year ago, when improvements to the park surrounding the trail began, has recently been un-re-routed. This too is jarring in subtle ways: the gravel is too loosely packed; the scenery is unfamiliar, after so long.

From the vantage point of the trail you can see the new Palmer Events Center under construction. Palmer Auditorium, which it replaces, was a thing of unique ugliness: a dome in enthusiastically tasteless variegated earth tones of green, brown, tan, and cream. Delightfully, the designers of the new edifice - which is not a dome at all - have embraced that legacy, by plastering the upper stories of the building with material in the same exact pattern and colors. It's a change! It remains the same! It's ug-tastic!

The busyness of the last few weeks is past, and for most of today I found myself idle. We, that is - we found ourselves idle, and were therefore not amused. Another state of extreme stress is in the wings, currently being set up by our highly tiresome, panic-monger boss; but has not been released upon us (that's the commoner "us" this time) just yet.

More time with dear friends; more interesting work to keep us busy and feeling important; less artificial stress and pointless panic; less anger; less worry and loneliness and unhappiness; more love, more good; less disappointment, less bad.

If we ruled the world, that's how it would be.