Insert Clever Pun Here

Since there isn’t a whole lot of room to add new and interesting ideas in a reflection for a class in which we reflected on the simulation, I figured I’d take this opportunity to lay out something I’ve been thinking about since I first got here in late June. It’s rather symbolic that it’s very difficult to see the stars in Washington, D.C.
It seems like the average working person here is very convinced of his own self-importance and the fact that the world would simply cease turning if they stopped working. People run around town with their Blutetooth headsets permanently attached to their ear, having deemed it unacceptable to miss a single call on their cell phone, ever. They must be constantly in contact with other important people elsewhere. If it isn’t a headset, you can be sure they have their iPod plugged in, and are simply tuning out the world with music. Peoples’ lives exist solely in the sixty eight square miles that is the District, and even within that they seem rather content to let the things that surround them pass them buy.
It has been a bit of a culture shock adjusting to living here. Back home it isn’t about who has the newest, shiniest, most expensive car, or who has the most power in some faceless government entity. We work to live, not live to work. Back home people will work hard to afford themselves the ability to take a long weekend, throw the mountain bike on top of the car (which one is more expensive is anyone’s guess), and head up to the mountains. I’m convinced that part of the reason these two completely different cultures are they way they are has to do with the ability to see the star. Here, a good night will give you about three dozen, there’s no depth to that. Out in the wilderness, you can see everything. It’s a humbling experience to lie down in the mountain air and stare into the vastness. It allows you to realize that perhaps the petty things you make such a big deal out of really don’t matter as much as you make them out to. It’s simultaneously the worst and the best feeling. It’s a luxury we here in DC unfortunately don’t have. I’ll wrap this post up with a Kurt Vonnegut quote, because I can think of no better way to do so.

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”