December 5, 2001

Brains are funny. Today, for example, my brain did something funny by recalling a moment from 9 years ago.

I had just moved back to Chicago from Tokyo, and was visiting with some friends. They had rented the movie The Running Man, and we watched that. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a dystopian sci-fi flick in which enemies of the state are entered in a gladiatorial-combat game show (hosted by Richard Dawson, nice touch). When the movie was over and the TV signal came on, what was showing but American Gladiators. For those of you who haven’t seen it, this is a gladiatorial-combat game show (sort of). I had to hold my head to keep it from exploding. “That was supposed to be science fiction!” I shrieked. “What has happened to my country in my absence?”

I guess it’s not only brains that are funny. The world can be pretty funny too. Funny-strange and funny-ha-ha.

My birthday has the funny tendency of coming near the new year, and so I get a double-whammy opportunity for reflection. With my birthday nigh upon me, I was in a reflective mood tonight, and in a rare moment, started feeling sorry for myself–this has been a tough year in some ways, and in some ways I felt that I had been stagnating or even moving backwards. A few more moments of thought made me realize that even if there is a kernel of truth in that, the idea that I have any reason to feel sorry for myself, or that I have been moving backwards overall over the past 365 days, is just ludicous. I’ve expanded my circle of friends greatly, tried new things, gotten interested in something new. I can’t complain.