Wednesday, January 19, 2005

So it goes.

I'm a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut. Welcome to the Monkey House, his collection of short stories, is one of my favorite books. Have you ever read the story called "Harrison Bergeron"? The premise of the story is that the government has decided to attempt to equalize every citizen in terms of intelligence, physical strength, and talent. Those who are "average"--those who can't think of anything except in short bursts--go through little change, but those who are considered above average are made to endure different forced methods of physical and mental limitation. Highly talented ballerinas dance with weights on their legs, so that they don't dance better or leap higher than anyone else. Pretty faces are masked. And intelligent people have devices in their heads that emit loud, piercing sounds every few seconds, so that they are not physically able to sustain any one thought for an extended period of time.

I'm reminded of this story simply because I feel like I haven't been able to think of one thing for more than five minutes in the last three days. I keep forgetting about the grad school thing and then remembering, and then my stomach does a little flip (an aftershock of the giant drop that happened when I first got the acceptance) and I attempt to go about my normal business. It's crazy. And great. And crazy.

I'm off to have dinner with Abbey at Green Ginger now! Yes!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

so you're one of the highly intelligents then?

just teasing.

keep enjoying that rollercoaster of getting in!!

-schutt.