Thursday, April 26, 2007

speaking of work....

one of my highlights today was skateboarding. the parking lot here at mariners recently got a fresh layer of, i dont know, something blacker and more smooth, with fresh painted white and yellow lines. add some skateboards and you get the perfect recipe for a nice break from work.
while cruising down a hill on my board in the warm afternoon soon and a cool ocean breeze in my face i started wondering how many people in the world have actually ridden around on a piece of plywood with wheels attached to the bottom. by some estimates, there have been around 106 billion people that have ever been born. i couldnt find any estimates on how many people have ever ridden a skateboard. probably a lot less, you know?

so anyway, my coworker, jared, and i are walking back up this small parking lot hill, and i am telling him my thoughts, and we are discussing how lucky we are. i mean, we are working right now! earlier at lunch we were discussing how denmark is the happiest country on earth - because they dont expect anything good. therefore everything good is a surprise. not a right. its just another way of saying they are content. i dont know if any of those last 4 sentences were true - but it seems like they could be. all the while we have so much. and therefore, interestingly enough, we expect more. which is an evil evil disease. because it seems to me we take a lot for granted. maybe its just me. but i try not to take things for granted.

and then this reminded me of a conversation i had a couple days ago with my friend cathi. i was asking her questions and she was teaching me about feminism. and it occurred to me again (this occurs to me from time to time) how i am a young, white, male, protestant, living in orange county. and i dont want this to sound arrogant, but that is pretty much the top, you know? at that great final wedding banquet, i wont be sitting at the bottom end of the table, i will be sitting at the kids table. but i will be delighted to be there nonetheless.

i have been really bummed out this past week for a variety of probably insignificant reasons. whenever i am really sad i sleep a lot. like 10 hours. thats a lot for me i cant help it. sometimes i go to bed before any of my room mates are home and when i leave for work the next day everyone else is already gone. i think too much. i worry. i have regrets. i get disappointed. i wonder if i am too far gone.

one thing jared said while we were walking with skateboards in the parking lot was "its good to have perspective." it is good. its good for me to stand outside and feel the warmth of the sun and remember that whatever it is thats getting me down doesnt really matter...

(this is a big step in blogging subjects for me. please dont hate my thoughts.)

5 comments:

Cathi said...

i like your thoughts. and thanks for talking the other night. i hardly know anything about the subject, but i also hardly have anyone to talk about it with....so thank you.

blythe said...

this is probably the longest blog you've written. at least that i've read. it may also be my favorite. i also like your thoughts.

especially the part about the kid's table.

blythe said...

also, no one is ever too far gone.

David T. Ulrich said...

i really appreciate this blog.

in regards to perspective in terms of our problems - actually, i think i'll just blog about it, but it involves matthew 6.

Alice said...

i like your thoughts too...