collegiate diversion

Dear YOU.

I can’t believe YOU have jumped continent, the thought just doesn’t sound right to me. 

I’ve been trying to think about what I should write to YOU, now that YOU are gone. I’m at an odd place when I don’t know what to write. What to say is often the place of confusion for me, but writing should be second nature by now. 

College has taught me that.

I guess these last couple of days for me have really revolved around Philosophy and Politics, so of course I thought of YOU. Most of our conversations always seemed to float into one of those two categories.

Between our last meeting before your departure and now, I attended a International Socialists’ meeting (ISO) and made a new friend. Our conversations have hinted at what New Friend calls “the search for truth.”

I don’t know about that.  I’m still so shy about my political opinions and theories.

But I was reading this thing the other day that was based on Marxist theory, some sort of assignment excerpt from a book expertly entitled “Money.” One of the author’s key points of puzzlement was America’s fetish for shopping and why most of us on my continent don’t think we have enough. Something like five in seven Americans don’t feel they are living the life they want.

What a continent and concept of misery.  And they all thought more money would get them the things they needed in life. That money would make them happier.

I want a yacht. I want a hot tub. I want a career with a company car. I want a ticket for Europe. I suppose there’s a lot anxieties in any American’s life that are for the most part, perturbed by their economic situation. 

I guess I’d like to take this political/economic – theory/puzzlement and apply it to a philosophical notion, and maybe even everyday life. 

You know, something I’m slightly more comfortable with.

I randomly started talking to this freshman last night about this great band TV on the Radio while he made me a pumpkin ice cream milkshake (the best!) in an Ithaca College Dining Hall. He was shocked that I had met the band but even more shocked that I didn’t have their new album. So he invited himself up later, which I didn’t mind, and burned me a copy. 

It was very sweet. And then we had a nice conversation while we swapped some great albums and talked about indie-rock and why mainstream is really not so bad after all. 

But this poor boy had a girl-problem, and don’t all freshmen boys? His 

ex-girl from back home had broke his heart.  He professed his love to her after one month of dating. Naturally, she freaked out and left him. 

It’s sad to think that I understand how she feels. 

A lot of people don’t want what they can have. In the beginning of the film 

“Annie Hall”, Woody Allen does this brief monologue in front of the camera - it’s absolutely amazing, you have to see it - he says that the key joke to his adult life is this: “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member. “

Ha.

ha.

Huh. So Americans want to shop, and they want the latest version of the iPhone, and they want a freshly-cut lawn in front of their perfectly-chosen suburban homes?

What is going on here? Is this how free market works? 

Here I go on one of my many stretched tangents, but I swear it’s related. We were talking about it in my journalism class today.

During a five minute break, which I considered to be ridiculous in a class that I am paying for, although it is an extraordinarily dense recap of mass media history that needs room for breathing – no anxiety attacks, please! - I turned around and started a conversation with my friends about the 

market crash over the last couple of days. 

How exciting it must be to watch all of this as an outsider in a different country YOU! I thought of that the other day, you’re going to have to look-up who wins the presidential election! It must put so much into perspective. Wow…hmmm.

Well, anyways, getting back to my point, we were all talking about 

the failed-logic in something this woman (forget her name) said on CNN. Some reporter asked her if she thought Americans should be buying stock now. And she said “Oh God, NOOOO! Don’t buy.” 

And I know nothing about stocks and shareholders and value really, but I 

thought that free-market worked like this: buy low, sell high. 

So all of us in class were just sort of guessing at would happen if no one bought right now. Our conclusion: nothing would fluxuate, we’d be stagnant and we’d slip into another Grand Depression! 

So back to my original observation, perhaps it’s important to want what you 

can’t have. That way, things move on, or flow, or re-adjust something. Just like in the market. Maybe in our lifestyles, maybe in romance?

Wanting what we can’t have. 

On that note, I want you and I can’t have you. Because of an ocean and the cost of travel. 

Signed,

Me.

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