Notes from the Petting Zoo

I pay theater prices (on those rare occasions I feel like a good hearty wallet-rape) because watching movies on TV is excruciating — shit gets cut and there are commercials all over.

Same reason I supposedly would buy cable.

Now, cable movies are cut to hell and cable has commercials and movie theaters are playing TV commercials at me.

Wasn’t it bad enough when customer service switchd from “Let us know how we can improve your experience here” to “shut the hell up, you noisy fuckwits!”?

I don’t like this. I really think it’s all becoming a Very Bad Thing. I can see why so many people prefer renting movies and making a home theater — they just want to be back in control of their experience. I can understand that.

I wish the theater could.

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I’ve been thinking about balance.

I think sometimes we try to keep our lives balanced, try to keep the forces in our lives moving in mutually pleasant directions. I think sometimes we have a clear understanding of ourselves and our capabilities, and we know the value of the work we do. We know, for example, how much is too much work for a task, and how not to get started in on it if we realize that it’s just not going to be worth the effort.

During these times, we are usually pretty steady people, with feet on the ground, heads in the sky, eyes ahead, and hands outstretched. We dress snappily, we’re kind to strangers and friends alike, we are charitable and kind, without being pushovers and used.

Sometimes.

But most of the time we’re just human. Which is often the best anyone around can do these days.

I think it’s important to cut people a little slack. After all, they’re human, too, which means that they have all the same problems I do, except that theirs are worse because I already know my problems!

There’s probably a dearth of slack in the world anyway, now that I think about it.

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