Sketches and Sandwiches and Rants

Sometimes I'm like...

What if this train is full of bombs?!

But then other times I'm like...

Yeahhhh, PB&J for lunch again!

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And the lesson is, both of these things are equally true or not true. 

It could be true that the train is full of bombs, or even made of bombs, and when it flies off the track it will explode and be very disturbing and a cause for alarm. And a cute journalist will report on it and you'll be watching it on the news and thinking about how cute she is but then you'll be like, "Oh yeah, this is serious...she fine, though. I wonder if she shops at Whole Foods?"

But it could also be true that the train is not full of bombs because that would almost be a waste of perfectly good bombs. Americans don't like trains.

We don't like them because it's too easy to hide bombs on them. That's why we're too afraid to use them. That's why it's a waste of a bomb. Americans don't like trains. We shouldn't fear bombs on them.

By the way, I'm not currently on a train. I was originally using "train" as a metaphor but then I decided to use it literally because. because.

It's also true that I love the PB&J and they make me happy when I eat them every single day for lunch. 

The slide is a metaphor for my esophageal tube. (Not pictured: the giant pile of half-digested PB&J corpses in a pit below the slide)

But it could also be true that I have no reason to be happy about PB&J. There are healthier foods. There are other foods that self-respecting adults can enjoy. 

What kind of grown-man am I getting excited about a mushy sandwich that 7-year-olds can prepare?

PB&J isn't going to lower my cholesterol or start up a retirement fund or pay rent or check on craigslist to see if anyone has a nice lamp that they don't want anymore because nothing adds class to a living room like a nice lamp.

But the point I'm trying to make is that because of all these conflicting truths and not-truths and could-be-truths, we have to make choices about our truths. And for most things, the importance of that truth to us gets its significance from our own confidence and conviction. Because, other than our own choice and reason and meaning-making ability, there's nothing to separate it from anything else.

And so, if what makes ideas important is our own investment and analysis of them, then all ideas that we express should in some way be an expression of ourselves.

It sounds obvious but, for example, if you have a friend and he's always talking about how annoying someone is on Facebook or how annoying all the bombs on all the trains are. That's somewhat important and I can agree with those things but at the same time, why is he making the choice to talk about that stuff instead of how great PB&J is?

Things are important because you make them important. So if you constantly talk about how angry and annoyed you are, that's because you've chosen (consciously or not) to give meaning to those angering and annoying things. That's a reflection on you! And it's not a very far jump from someone who is angered and annoyed to someone who is angering and annoying.

 You could just as easily talk about how awesome it is that the Moon orbits the Earth and that creates tides. And in some areas they use that tidal motion to produce energy so that we can run our microwaves to make buttered popcorn. The Moon makes us popcorn!

THANKS THE MOON!

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Yeah, kid. I think you got it. PB&J are pretty tasty, huh? Outta sight!

Thanks Coolstache Campbell!