Today was great. I went to Cafe Michael for breakfast, expecting to quietly read a few more pages of "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus. My waitress, a short, dark-haired woman who looked to be in her early forties, took interest, and immediately struck up a conversation with me about Camus! She said she never understood why, but "The Stranger" had been her mother's favorite book.
She explained that her mother said, "The main character has no emotions. Everything rolls off his back, even when he's sentenced for murder. That's why he's like me. I never take anything seriously." The waitress seemed to balk at her mother's comparison in that regard.
I offered that we all lead double lives. There is the life of expectations, which is ultra-emotional, and the life of actuality, in which we have actual experiences. Often our expectations are more colored with emotions than our actual experiences, by comparison. Thus we often live more in the future and past than in the present moment. If we pay careful attention at those times when the present moment asserts itself, we will find ourselves surprisingly capable of living through whatever situation in which we find ourselves. I believe that is what Camus was getting at.
After paying my bill, I drove home, then fished out my extra copy of "The Plague" and took it back to the restaurant. She watched with a puzzled look as I handed it to her. "Here," I said, "I happened to have an extra copy, and I think you would like this one. Take your time with it. I eat here every couple of weeks, and I've read this a dozen times."
For the rest of the day, I stepped lighter. It is nice to find a person now and again who cares so much for literature and philosophy as much as I do.
Word up, Cafe Michael waitress
She explained that her mother said, "The main character has no emotions. Everything rolls off his back, even when he's sentenced for murder. That's why he's like me. I never take anything seriously." The waitress seemed to balk at her mother's comparison in that regard.
I offered that we all lead double lives. There is the life of expectations, which is ultra-emotional, and the life of actuality, in which we have actual experiences. Often our expectations are more colored with emotions than our actual experiences, by comparison. Thus we often live more in the future and past than in the present moment. If we pay careful attention at those times when the present moment asserts itself, we will find ourselves surprisingly capable of living through whatever situation in which we find ourselves. I believe that is what Camus was getting at.
After paying my bill, I drove home, then fished out my extra copy of "The Plague" and took it back to the restaurant. She watched with a puzzled look as I handed it to her. "Here," I said, "I happened to have an extra copy, and I think you would like this one. Take your time with it. I eat here every couple of weeks, and I've read this a dozen times."
For the rest of the day, I stepped lighter. It is nice to find a person now and again who cares so much for literature and philosophy as much as I do.
Word up, Cafe Michael waitress
After paying my bill, I said to her, "Thanks for the breakfast and the good conversation. It always makes me happy to find someone who cares about literature, ideas, and philosophy. We're a dying breed."
"Yes we are," she said, drying her hands on a dish towel.
"It's seems to be a sign of our times. If something isn't on a Blackberry or iPhone, it's not relevant."
The Sartre sketches are hilarious. Mrs. Premise and Conclusion, and who can forget Eric Idle as Betty-Muriel Sartre. "Revolutionary pamphlets everywhere... one of these days I'll revolutionary pamphlet him!" Python love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crIJvcWkVcs