Inoculating Against Reality

As a police officer, you're trained to look for patterns in behavior. This is often difficult, but not last night. The first four calls I went to last night involved intoxicated people. People driving into trees while intoxicated. Stumbling through parking lots while intoxicated. Lying on a sidewalk while intoxicated. Slamming into other vehicles while intoxicated. The allure of alcohol, I understand. The allure of drunkenness, I do not. Yet every night I see people defying what I consider perfectly sound logic. Logic that says, hey, if you're ignorant enough to drive drunk, at least stop driving after the first curb you run over. If you can't stand up, maybe you shouldn't attempt to walk. And if you don't have clean clothes or anywhere to stay, perhaps booze shouldn't be on your ought-to-purchase list.

For hours last night, inner Justin shook his head and rolled his eyes and tsk-tsked these people who couldn't negotiate those challenging sidewalks or use established parking lot exits or hold their bladder. As I later reflected on their choices, though, I realized something. They're not especially unique - they're just the poster children. Their means are decidedly liquid in nature, but they are only doing what we all do at some point or another: inoculating against reality.

Think about it. What are we told by marketers every day? We need to escape. We deserve to get away from it all. We need to lose ourselves in whatever they're selling. There is this perpetual idea that other is better. Somewhere else would be more exciting. Someone else would suit you better. Something else would provide more fulfillment. And we buy into it. Whether it's a vacation or a drug, a shopping trip or a porno, it seems we want to be anywhere but here.

And I'm often just as guilty as anyone else. But here is good.

In our fevered quest for other things, we tend to forget about the magic of here. We inhale meals that should be contemplated and savored. We take for granted people whom we should be learning and enjoying. We despise the quiet and the humble in favor of the flashy and the ostentatious. The blessings in favor of the fantasies. The real in favor of chasing the wind. We don't know our neighbors. We don't know our spouses.

We don't know ourselves.

I was in Colorado Springs with Kimberly a few weeks ago, and I was wanting to get some of the weather conditions for Pike's Peak. I flipped the television on, and was quickly courted by a commercial imploring me to visit beautiful...Missouri. I realized we all live in someone else's vacation destination. Live like it. Enjoy the vicissitudes of everyday life. Cherish the people around you. And quit sheltering yourself from real life.

"Don't worry about life. You're not going to survive it anyway." -- Unknown