It's that guy sitting in front of you in class doing the crossword instead of taking notes. It's the people who play video games for hours at a time instead of doing their homework. It's the insecure person who has to drink his own weight in alcohol before he can get up the nerve to ask a girl on a date and then forgets he did it the next morning.
Whatever the scenario, we as humans cannot get rid of our incessant desire to escape from reality.
Constantly seeking some change from our routine schedules, U.S. citizens try as hard as possible to do anything but the things they have to do. Either procrastinating until the day before or just neglecting things totally, we do manage to accomplish absolutely nothing in the process. Sure video games are fun, but no matter how high the score gets, it just isn't real. We sit around for hours at a time watching re-runs of "Saved by the Bell," but to no avail. Zach is still going to have to take the test he keeps putting off too.
So why is this? Why have we decided that our nine-to-five lives don't cut it, and we have to be entertained by Tarantino covering an entire set with blood and letting Uma stand over it with a Samurai sword?
We escape, most likely, because frankly, reality sucks. People die every day in huge numbers. Billions of people are starving, and we can't do anything about it. Nature is going to keep ticking by without giving a single care in our direction whether we are doing homework or playing Jenga and listening to Raffi.
Even the inevitable gut class you are enrolled in is a great example of you escaping reality. Think about it. Eventually you have to get a job, stop living off dad and somehow start contributing to society. So how have you decided to prepare for this? Well of course, you are taking that Ecology class or something about symphonies you already learned about in second grade. And it's a good thing, because most grad schools and employers ask you to differentiate between Mahler's and Brahms's styles of composing on all their interviews. Oh wait. . . no they don't.
That's right, we have to actually know substantial things. We have to study so that we can improve society. Wow, that sounds hard. I wonder if "Seinfeld" is on?
Human civilization has progressed from the caveman who had to carve his life out of the rocks, to us: college kids who would much rather go out to Coupe's to get booze-faced than write a paper on Restoration. And that's about it right there. That need for something different. Can't just wake up, shower, go to class, eat, go to class again, eat again, do homework for class tomorrow and wake up to the same model of mediocrity your life has become. No, we have to strive for something different, some change, something new.
Sunning on the beach, skiing in Colorado, hiking through the Shenandoah, we just can't take our lives anymore. We are a generation of speed freaks who blame our problems on being ADHD, and think we have to take amphetamines to concentrate. No, we just have to realize that reality is boring. Either that or you have to make your reality interesting. Start wearing different colored socks or something, just anything to keep you from reading "The Da Vinci Code" for the fourth time thinking you will find something different this time around.
The world situation is pretty terrible right now. We saved Iraq, and they hate us. We finance entire continents that publicly tell their citizen we are pigs. And our population responds by changing to Sportscenter, but it's ok. Someone will save us won't they? Please?
The simple fact of the matter is that nobody will take care of you except yourself. In the end, it is you and the mirror, if you don't like what you see, then you're probably not gonna go very far. You have to realize that what is in front of you is real, and there is nothing better than reality. If you are in doubt and need to get away from the Louis Vuitton purses and faux-blonde hair on every girl you see, drive out Blue Ridge parkway for a little while and take a look around. Realize that we are in one of the most beautiful parts of the country and that is a huge blessing in itself. Sure, you can put off the paper until tomorrow, get really stoned and watch more cartoons, but if you finish the paper now, you'll have more time to work on it and will probably get a better grade.
But who am I to tell you what to do? I'm just waiting for "The Sopranos" to come back on.
I think life can best be summed up in the wise words of second-year College student Cole Sharpe when he said, ". . .Just, like. . . 'cause he's so cool. I mean, basically, I believe in God because of Christopher Walken."
Alright Cole, sounds good to me.
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