Non-Variations on a Theme

That thing I wanted to write about yesterday and forgot I remembered sometime today. I was just sitting there and, boom, it hit me. It was like the thought had never been gone at all. It returned so quickly and suddenly I felt dumb for having forgotten it. My idea yesterday was to write out this issue I've been having with my own writing. I am stuck on certain themes. I don't know if that is because there are so many themes in the world or if it is because I live in an area where everyone is at war with time.

The very nature of this area is people fighting time. They are always trying to beat time. Think about the term Rush Hour. It exists because we've created a structure where everyone shows up to work around the same time, works for a certain number of hours, and then goes home. What if things worked differently? What if time wasn't the driving force? What if people worked to get the job done instead of working to put in their time so that they could collect their money? 

Instead of Rush Hours people go to work when they want and work until that day's duties are done, and then they go home. There are no time restrictions. Time isn't even a factor. People that work better in the morning would show up earlier and people that work better at night would show up later. The only factor that time would be is that there would be a certain amount of work expected to be done each day, but the restriction of it having to be done between the hours of 9:00 to 5:00 would be lifted. How this would effect traffic is behind my understanding and as it is a massive change in societal view it will never happen. 

Watch people drive during these Rush Hour times. They do crazy things to be a second earlier. How many times have you been trying to merge onto the highway and a car won't let you? They are going to do everything in their power to keep you from getting in, and so you do the only thing you can, you speed up and get in front of the car in front of them. I don't know if they feel that because you're now out of sight out of mind that you won't slow them down or if they were hoping that you would give up on trying to merge, stop on the highway, and block all further traffic from getting on the road. I can't imagine the world view of this type of person so trying to imagine this one tiny thought is overly difficult. 

There are a variety of crazy people on the road at all hours around here. How about the people that you pull safely in front of. Maybe 20 or more feet in front of and then they get pissed, change lanes, and speed past you only to get back in front of you and slow to a speed below that of what you are driving. It is like there was just something about you that pissed them off to such a degree they had to be in front of you. It had little to do with moving faster, but by being in front of you they will get to where they are going sooner, and that is what is important. 

People around here are so concerned with being places that they never bother to simply be. This may be a bad example as smoking is bad for you and people shouldn't do it and I don't smoke cigarettes myself, but I was thinking about the statement that one cigarette takes seven seconds off your life. Seven second. That is it. For someone that enjoys smoking cigarettes you have to imagine the minute of pleasure they obtain is worth the seven seconds they lose. It would take more than 4.5 million cigarettes to take an entire year off a person's life. It is just part of our obsession with time that we think that telling someone something is going to shorten their life by seven seconds is going to stop them from doing it. If someone told me every hamburger I ate was going to shorten my life by a full 30 minutes that wouldn't stop me. I am on this planet to enjoy my life. 

I am here and I exist and that is what is important. That is the theme I've been dealing with most, but it keeps coming up in the form of time, and I can't decide if it is wrong to have a reoccurring theme. I want to say no. I've liked most all of what I have written and because I've liked it I hope there are others that will as well. I actually wrote about merging onto 495. It is everything I think is good in writing. It is balanced in plot and theme, it glorifies the mundane (I can't think of anything more mundane than getting on the highway), and it has the overarching theme I've dealt with most of time, existence, and the relationship of the two. 

 Merging Onto 495 South

Hurtling down the highway,

racing to the next halt.

Right crosses and left hooks

thrown harmlessly at the face of time.

Always in a hurry, always racing,

fighting the invisible force

to get to the next destination

to get to the next destination.

The crushing, unyielding entity

enslaving us all.

Wage the un-winnable war,

the great master laughs.

Race to make your life

seconds longer.

There I am behind you,

pulling in the parking lot

five seconds later.