The Anti-Goal

About this time a year ago, I set out with two goals: to grow a beard and to blog. Both were patchy and ill-kept. The beard lasted longer than the blogging did, though. This year I'm back WITHOUT a goal! My lack of a goal is really in itself a goal. I want to write here without perameters and personally imposed restrictions. My mind definitely knows how to stray from the beaten path, but the moments aren't usually recorded. My brain usually keeps a running log of the day and events, searching for significance and meaning, like Arnold's narration on The Wonder Years or JD's internal dialogue on Scrubs. It all plays over a well compiled soundtrack, too. So that's usually the voice that shows in my writing. I want to break out of those boundaries and see what I can come up with. Maybe I'll even pass on something interesting in the process.

Today, on the way to work I stopped to fuel up my car and to get some coffee. At the register, the attendant looked at me and asked, "What's a fisk?" I was confused for a second at such an odd sounding question as she pointed to my button on my coat that simply says, "fisk." I gave her the lightbulb look of recognition that her question was a valid one and explained that last week I was at a show of Schuyler Fisk's, a singer/songwriter from California. What if I hadn't been wearing the button though? How weird would that question have been then? What if people asked strangers questions more often...unrelated to any prompting from the individual? That could be kind of fun and could make life interesting for everyone involved.

"Excuse me sir. What's a flux capacitor?"

The responses to that question from people who know and those who don't could be interesting and imagine the stories they'd tell later in the day. "This guy came up to me and asked me about a flux capacitor. I don't know if he was time travelling and his Delorian broke down or what. I didn't think to ask until after he left."

I answer questions all day. It's kind of my job...knowing things and being able to explain them. I think I might start asking some questions...even if the answers don't matter.