JUST LIKE DAYDREAMING4
I was sitting in Famous Burger thinking of the Chinese chemist that invented gunpowder. This is not as random as you may think; in the movie Adaptation, a character is shot. I started thinking of the physics of a small piece of metal traveling at great speed and all the damage it can do and has done over the years. It all goes back nearly a millennium to one person sitting in a room. A curious man or woman. Someone likely to dream, to aspire towards creation. If they knew of the tens of millions of people who would die from their invention, that would meet violent ends on battlefields, in trailer parks, and on lonely roads, if they knew that, would it have stopped them?
Human nature is fascinating. We want to be loved, we want to be accepted, but we are suspicious. We are jaded animals ready to flee into the undergrowth at the first loud noise, at the first real or imagined threat. We want to be loved, we want to be accepted, but we dont want it to be too easy. Its like when you come across someone and you get along with them, even if you think they may like you, you have to pretend you dont think much of them. So, you sit around for a couple of days--How long? Two days? Three? Opinions are varied, arguments have been made for both time durations. Its the very fine line between showing studied disinterest and yet letting someone know you think theyre cool and you enjoy their company. Personally, Im wretched at this. I used to be over-eager with people, it was clear to them I was into them and Id scare them off. Now, Im very reserved and the opposite occurs. People dont know when I find them attractive and we drift into that scary place known as the Friend Zone. The Friend Zone isnt the worst place, I suppose, but the coffee is lousy and there is only fifteen minute parking.
If that Chinese chemist had been able to envision all the pain and carnage that would result from his or her invention, would they have just--stopped? This is an absurd question. There is no way they could have known, there is no way we can blame them for all the deaths and injuries due to gunpowder; the wars, the drive-by shootings, the stupid redneck arguments that end in fatalities. That moment, in that candle-lit room nearly a millennium ago, was the beginning. The chemist was following their instinct, their curiosity, the one thing that made them feel alive, feel excited, feel real: What will happen if I combine this and this and this? Something amazing could happen. So, they worked and tinkered and fucked around for days, maybe weeks, maybe months, and one day they caused an explosion and they sat theremost likely there were tears in his or her eyes, just at the wonderment, the final moment, the climax of this amazing idea that caused them to sit bolt upright in bed or stop in the middle of a dirty street days or weeks or months earlier. This was the greatest moment in their life. The beginning. They probably had no idea how it could have been applied, they could have even contemplated keeping the discovery to themselves, but in that moment there was a beauty that can scarcely be equaled, the beauty of realization.
As an animal, we are curious, we like to discover things. We seek out others to share in our lives, that we can show all these amazing things to and perhaps have them show us things they have come to see as amazing. I feel like that Chinese chemist, I am curious, I am always trying to discover something, to see whether when these two elements are combined there will be a fizzle or an explosion that causes all my jars to fall off the shelves and wake the neighbors. But curiosity is at its most potent when combined with patience. Inspiration combined with wisdom is an unstoppable alchemy, and has the possibility of shaping the future
I was sitting in Famous Burger thinking of the Chinese chemist that invented gunpowder. This is not as random as you may think; in the movie Adaptation, a character is shot. I started thinking of the physics of a small piece of metal traveling at great speed and all the damage it can do and has done over the years. It all goes back nearly a millennium to one person sitting in a room. A curious man or woman. Someone likely to dream, to aspire towards creation. If they knew of the tens of millions of people who would die from their invention, that would meet violent ends on battlefields, in trailer parks, and on lonely roads, if they knew that, would it have stopped them?
Human nature is fascinating. We want to be loved, we want to be accepted, but we are suspicious. We are jaded animals ready to flee into the undergrowth at the first loud noise, at the first real or imagined threat. We want to be loved, we want to be accepted, but we dont want it to be too easy. Its like when you come across someone and you get along with them, even if you think they may like you, you have to pretend you dont think much of them. So, you sit around for a couple of days--How long? Two days? Three? Opinions are varied, arguments have been made for both time durations. Its the very fine line between showing studied disinterest and yet letting someone know you think theyre cool and you enjoy their company. Personally, Im wretched at this. I used to be over-eager with people, it was clear to them I was into them and Id scare them off. Now, Im very reserved and the opposite occurs. People dont know when I find them attractive and we drift into that scary place known as the Friend Zone. The Friend Zone isnt the worst place, I suppose, but the coffee is lousy and there is only fifteen minute parking.
If that Chinese chemist had been able to envision all the pain and carnage that would result from his or her invention, would they have just--stopped? This is an absurd question. There is no way they could have known, there is no way we can blame them for all the deaths and injuries due to gunpowder; the wars, the drive-by shootings, the stupid redneck arguments that end in fatalities. That moment, in that candle-lit room nearly a millennium ago, was the beginning. The chemist was following their instinct, their curiosity, the one thing that made them feel alive, feel excited, feel real: What will happen if I combine this and this and this? Something amazing could happen. So, they worked and tinkered and fucked around for days, maybe weeks, maybe months, and one day they caused an explosion and they sat theremost likely there were tears in his or her eyes, just at the wonderment, the final moment, the climax of this amazing idea that caused them to sit bolt upright in bed or stop in the middle of a dirty street days or weeks or months earlier. This was the greatest moment in their life. The beginning. They probably had no idea how it could have been applied, they could have even contemplated keeping the discovery to themselves, but in that moment there was a beauty that can scarcely be equaled, the beauty of realization.
As an animal, we are curious, we like to discover things. We seek out others to share in our lives, that we can show all these amazing things to and perhaps have them show us things they have come to see as amazing. I feel like that Chinese chemist, I am curious, I am always trying to discover something, to see whether when these two elements are combined there will be a fizzle or an explosion that causes all my jars to fall off the shelves and wake the neighbors. But curiosity is at its most potent when combined with patience. Inspiration combined with wisdom is an unstoppable alchemy, and has the possibility of shaping the future