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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Man on a mission

I was walking the other night along a riverside promenade in the middle of the city of Melbourne, Australia, where street artists, on hands and knees, draw large chalk or crayon versions of Renaissance masterpieces on the pavement. I saw ahead of me a group of drunken young men who were waylaying passers-by and forcing them to admire and contribute to the retirement plan of an embarrassed artist. So I walked a bit faster and studiously avoided eye contact.

As I slipped past I heard one of the men say to one of the others who was going after me: "Leave him. He's on a mission."

5 comments:

  1. A bit cryptic, so I'm wondering ... do you look that intense? People who know me very well say sometimes I don't seem to pay enough attention to my surroundings. The phrase I keep hearing is "Earth to GC!" LOL. Similar vein?

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  2. Well I was grateful to be left alone and the fellow's reason amused me. Maybe it's an achievement of sorts even to SEEM to be on a mission! In fact I've never found the ideal cause to devote myself to, and no earthly powers - good or evil - have ever tried to recruit me! Actually I suspect I look a bit vague rather than intense most of the time. I like the "Earth to GC". I remember a student with a very camp manner who would always declare himself to be 'lost in space' whenever anything difficult came up.

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  3. I was older than my classmates in college (the fourth time around -- LOL). A boomer in school with Gen X. And sometimes they called me Woodstock. Little did they know, while Woodstock was happening, I was 90 miles east of Taos, up to my bootheels in calfpoop, holding poor little steers down for branding & hunting down snakes on weekends. When I got back to DC, everybody was talking about this "event" & I might as well have been on the moon. Out of it ever since, too. The irony being, I've always been in the wrong place at the right time. And I think it shows. LOL.

    And yeah, between the lines I "got" the idea how the airheads decided to leave you alone. They know they're unworthy. LOL.

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  4. GC, you paint a wonderful picture. :)

    I'd rather be wading in calfpoop, holding steers, and hunting snakes too. Sheesh, it's a no brainer, right? :)

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