Meta-thinking

Yesterday, I traveled to Kingston and back for a conference. The conference was actually three days long, but between family obligations and that thing that’s happening this morning – what was it again? Oh yeah, I’m going to be on TV!!!!! Ahem – well, it was just too much for me to attend all three days, but Kingston is only two hours away by train.

I love the train, I really do. I guess Tristan comes by his obsession honestly. You get a totally different view of the world from the train. Houses face the road, not the train tracks, so the view from the train seems very intimate – it’s almost like peeking into lit windows at night. And there’s something about riding the train in the dark that makes you feel dissociated from the rest of the world – you can just sit and ride and think (or read, or snooze, or – god forbid – work.)

The conference itself was great, too. It was one of those days where you feel like your world is a little bigger than you realized, and you feel a little bit more connected to the rest of the world.

Perspective – that’s the word I’m looking for. Even someone as change-averse as me needs to step out of the everyday routine for a while and take a look around. The trick is in doing something with the perspective, not just prairie-dogging up for a bit and then going back to doing the same old thing.

I realized recently that I’ve become so used to being busy and overworked that I cram something into every moment of every day – and more than one thing, if I can multi-task. Then one day I forgot to bring a book to read on the bus on the way home, and they were out of the free daily paper with the soduko puzzle, and so I just sat there for the entire 35 minute ride and stared out the window – and I realized that I can’t remember the last time I did that. I just sat, and thought. Pondered. Considered. I didn’t have any relevations, except that maybe I need to just sit and stare off into space more often. It felt surprisingly good!

End of January resolution: more slacking. I’ll put it on my calendar.

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