LOOKIN’ AROUND by Syd Iwan “Today I will live in the moment unless it’s unpleasant, in which case I will eat a cookie.” Such is a quote from the Cookie Monster as seen on TV’s Sesame Street. Being somewhat of an escapist myself (and also a cookie monster,) I generally subscribe to this philosophy. There are always unpleasant or distasteful situations we prefer to keep away from, and eating the occasional cookie can be helpful in avoiding them, at least for a little while. There are other escapist techniques as well. Some people go fishing. Others drive hot cars or motorcycles. If the weather is not conducive to outdoor activities, one can always watch a movie, read a book, or play a video game. Any enjoyable activity that occupies the mind will do, but sometimes we have to keep our eyes open in order to find them. It helps to be an opportunist, I might add, if you hope to be a good escapist. Otherwise you might miss a good thing. Take my experience at officer candidate school, for example. There we were in Rhode Island in the dead of winter enduring four months of misery becoming naval officers. One part of that which I found particularly distasteful was a session of calisthenics we did early every morning right after falling out of bed. These exercises didn’t accomplish much toward fitness but were more of an irritation than anything useful. As a result, I cast around for any excuse to avoid them. Lo and behold, the choir at the chapel practiced every morning at that very same time, and going to choir practice exempted attendance at calisthenics. I joined up right away and sang my way through training. It was great. We had other periods of physical exercise that I didn’t mind and was happy enough to do, but getting out of that early-morning bit was a real plus. I did something similar at college. It was hard for me to study very well at the dormitory or in the library since there were too many distractions. What to do? Well, a job opened up for a student assistant to one of the business professors. It mostly consisted of typing up tests, running errands, and occasionally helping in classes or giving tests. It gave me a minor income, but the real advantage was that it got me a little office cubicle in an office building with a key for entry at any time of day. It also had an electric typewriter I could use for my own work as well as for what I did for my professor. This quiet after-hours workplace was great. I’m pretty sure it helped me keep my grades up and also maintain a decent state of mind. I might add that, if you are a dedicated escapist, it helps to be a rancher that lives at the back of beyond. You can go for days without seeing another human being and are therefore able to steer clear of many traumas involved with living in society. No one cares if you don’t shovel snow off the sidewalk or if your dog barks at 3:00 AM. You can even walk naked from the house to the barn if you should want to and no one will be offended. The dog, cats, cows, and chickens don’t give a fig what you are wearing or not wearing as long as you remember to toss them a bit of food from time to time. It helps to also avoid turning on any news programs on radio or TV. Do that and you can quite possibly lead a fairly stress-free existence. I like it. It suits me just fine. One problem in learning how to evade mental anguish is that you might get carried away and accomplish nothing much of value. I have a particularly addictive computer game that goes on and on and is hard to quit. It has made me waste a number of hours that could have been put to considerably better use. I know of fishermen, too, who get so involved in their angling that all else goes by the wayside for an extended period of time. In my pursuit of being a good escapist and also a cookie monster, I find it useful to always keep a stash of chocolate-chip cookies in the freezer. This policy works out well, and there are several little bags containing three cookies each in the freezer as we speak. I wonder if I should go take one of those bags out now, microwave the cookies for ten seconds, and proceed to eat them. Perhaps a nice glass of milk might help them go down even better. As you can see, the opportunity for escape is obviously available and right there for the taking. Guess I’ll go take advantage of it. Catch you later.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 11:03:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015