Another day in the life

Headed into White Rock today, for book club at C's place on Marine Drive in White Rock. It was a feast reminiscent of Christmas. I don't remember the last time I ate so well: thanks again to C for an absolutely fantastic lunch. With appetizers. And wine. And dessert.

So. How does one lead a discussion on Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"? One doesn't. One merely makes a few notes and throws them out to be mulled, pondered and discussed and then all of a sudden four or five hours have passed and you're sitting there, grateful to be in the presence of such interesting people, having some of the most fascinating conversation that you've perhaps ever had and thoughts are popping in and out of your head faster than you can process them as different people go on different tangents, each of which could possibly be explored for several hours on their own. Does it get better than that? It does: the traffic on the Port Mann was light to and from White Rock, and as I looked in my rear view mirror crossing back over it this evening I saw a rainbow. A rainbow. Come on! I wanted to pull my car over to the side of the road and start laughing or crying.

One of my favourite movies of all time is "My Dinner with Andre". At one point Andre says, "They're feeling that there'll be these "pockets of light" springing up in different parts of the world, and that these will be in a way invisible planets on this planet, and that as we, or the world, grow colder, we can take invisible space journeys to these different planets, refuel for what it is we need to do on the planet itself, and come back. And it's their feeling that there have to be centers, now, where people can come and reconstruct a new future for the world." I'm not saying that we were reconstructing a new future for the world today, but I felt as though I had refueled before stepping back out into the world. And it also hearkened back to Po's book, "The Global Brain" and how the collective consciousness is greater than that of the individual. I knew that "Atlas Shrugged" was going to be massive and hard to dissect and I think we only really scraped the surface of it, but sharing that experience with others, discussing the various thoughts and concepts with others helped me to understand and appreciate the book more than I could have on my own.

Hmm... I'm still too intellectually stimulated and excited to settle down. I'm trying to wrap this up neatly, but I can't. We talked a bit about reality, objectivism and existence. I returned to the following quote a few times: "...there's nothing of any importance in life - except how well you do your work... Whatever else you are will come from that. It's the only measure of human value." That prompted a lot of conversation and I posited that that premise was bunk because a lot of people get where they are by sheer, dumb luck and that I was a shining example of this. Skyhammer altered my reality by adeptly pointing out that it was my hard work that resulted in my good luck and not the other way around. It was fantastic - for years I had been looking at everything backwards: that I lucked into jobs; fluked into qualifying for Boston; am lucky to have the friends I have; am fortunate to have a 35 hour work week. I had a conversation with Typewriter once in which he said that he felt like he was a fraud and that he was just waiting to be caught out. I didn't quite understand what he meant at the time, but in looking at how much reverence I have been giving the concept of "luck" and all the actual work I put in to be able to receive this "luck", I now understand. I thought luck got me to where I am today and I have always described myself as a lucky person. Hell, my profile makes reference to it being medically proven that I have a horseshoe up my ass. I'm not lucky. What I am is good, worthy, hard working, deserved and well-liked by the people in life that I most admire and respect. I earned the things I value. It's so ridiculously fundamental and I can't believe that I never grasped that concept or was even aware that the concept existed. I'm still reeling from this.

So, you know, that was my day. "Atlas Shrugged" has been termed the second most influential book after the Bible. I've heard that it has changed people's lives and I believe that, in a weirdly roundabout way, it has changed mine.

Thank you to Skyhammer, N, Po and C for incredible food, wine, company, discussion and enlightenment. I am so very appreciative that you are part of my brilliant life.