At a nearby skatepark, police ticket kids who don’t where their helmets. This makes sense from an economic perspective. Overall, the skaters don’t realize the scope of their societal damage when they ride helmetlessly. Expensive hospital trips, litigation, frustration, time, and fear are the result of injuries incurred by skating unprotected. The townspeople can curb this behavior by forcing the culprits –skaters without helmets – to pay upfront for their statistical share of the damage. In effect, ticketing these rule-breakers is equivalent to fining companies that pollute the environment. There is now an economic incentive for the aforementioned groups to behave in ways that benefit the society as a whole, rather than solely the individual.
Sketch it Up
I spoke to a passionate caricaturist about his work. This man graduated from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn, only to realize that his calling was more artistically inclined. He told me that there are different philosophies behind the art of caricaturing, and regional differences between styles. To the trained eye, one could tell where a caricaturist is from by the nature of his artwork. His theory was that a good caricature is more recognizable than a photograph of the same person, because it accentuates the most prominent features of a person. I fear that by only sharing these few details, you will not develop a full understanding of this man’s psychology- rather, just a caricature of his personality. On second thought, maybe that’s not so bad.
Moving on...
I live in a state of anticipation. Waiting for 12:15 so I can walk to class, waiting for the bread to pop out of the toaster. But more generally, I spend my waking life living outside of the present. All of my actions are either directly preparing myself for a stable future (e.g. going to college) or just killing time until I get there (e.g. listening to music, sleeping, whatever). I have this fuzzy shape of how everything’s all going to turn out – because, ya know, it’s gotta turn out somehow, and most middle-class kids tend to grow up into middle-class adults. But since time is separating menow from methen, I’m stuck waiting. Once I get married, have two-and-a-half kids, and become the right fielder for my company’s softball team, will this anticipation disappear? Will I then finally get to enjoy the present? By then, will it be too late?
I Don't Get It
The Librarian of Congress is a badass profession. English majors aspire to reach this level; the rhetorically competent Postmaster General. He or she is responsible for appointing the US Poet Laureate. The Po-La is a pretty fresh job, too. It’s a vestige from Elightenment-era. The town crier and the Po-La get together for tea ‘round noon. Joseph Brodsky, former Po-La, established a program to make poetry available in airports, hotels, hospitals, and supermarkets. A creative and potentially awesome idea, for sure. The job of Po-La is to educate the US about poetry. This seems beneficial on the surface, but I'm not sure how much of a difference he is making. Instead, he should be responsible for painting the present US period in ink. Tax dollars funding a poetic genius to tell future generations our tale – metaphorically, artistically, gutturally.
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