The future

In church this afternoon I had the following thought: Why not go to law school at UNC? Why not also go to urban planning school at the same time? (UCLA is another option– pretty good law school, top-10 urban planning.)

I’m putting these questions out here just so they won’t bother me until after Friday. But the worst that could happen, if I follow this route, is that I have four more years in the second happiest place on earth. Best case, I get to go to Copenhagen.

A relevant song is: The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future by Los Campesinos.

I want to go to there

What’s more, Wikipedia says that Denmark is probably (and I quote) “the happiest place in the world.”

This is clearly the happiest part of the ocean.

While we’re talking about Scandinavia–  not only are the Danes probably the happiest, people on earth, but their neighbors to the north have Kristian Matsson, a.k.a.  The Tallest Man On Earth, and that’s something, too. (Click the link; that version of ‘I Won’t Be Found’ is worth listening to.)

Copenhagen

Kierkegaard, whose ‘Fear and Trembling’ I’m avoiding for a few minutes, was Danish (which is why Bart wants the subtitle of my thesis to be “: Reflections on the Great Dane”). So a few days ago when I was also diligently avoiding ‘Fear and Trembling’ I looked up Denmark’s Wikipedia page, and I found that Copenhagen is a magical city where 37% of the population ride their bikes every day. It instantly became my deepest longing to go to Copenhagen.

Home on Friday night, I told my dad of my new purpose in life, and we laughed about it. Then he turned on the TV and a commercial was on–a commercial about an environmental summit in … Copenhagen. He turned the channel and another commercial was on, a Cicsco commercial featuring an American businessman in … Copenhagen. Weird, right? It’s making me question my belief in coincidence.

It is late.

I decided to pull an all-nighter tonight in order to finish the 15-page paper I have due to my advisor tomorrow evening. To that end I had two cups of coffee at Open Eye, around 9 and 10, respectively. But it turns out I have nothing worthwhile to say about Kierkegaard tonight, and now I can’t fall asleep. So me and my scotch are just sitting here, listening to good music. Maybe I’ll rearrange my room.

Kierkegaard. Whose idea was it to do a thesis on him, anyway? Whose idea was it to study philosophy in the first place? Law school will be so much easier than this.

Catch-22

“In parts of Africa, little boys were still stolen away by adult slave traders and sold for money to men who disembowled them and ate them. Yossarian marveled that children could suffer such barbaric sacrifice without evincing the slightest hint of fear or pain. He took it for granted that they did submit so stoically. If not, he reasoned, the custom would certainly have died, for no craving for wealth or immortality could be so great, he felt, as to subsist on the sorrow of children.”

Lost in the Cosmos

“You live in a deranged age – more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.”

- Walker Percy