The Open Matt Project

is thirty enough?

As time goes by and you look at the things you once thought were all-important, or all-encompassing, or to-be-avoided-at-all-costs, how much do you find has changed?

Sure, comic books and arcade games used to be high on my list of priorities. In fact, they scored higher than girls in my old journals "top 5 most important things" list. But when I turned 10 or so it became girls, and girls rapidly filled all but one slot of that top five list.

I thought that people were inherently good and if only they had basic neccessities that there could be world peace. Then I learned that there were just flat out bad people in the world who would always screw it up for everyone else. I gave my love to every girl I felt it for. Then I learned that scarcity = demand. I remember thinking that the world would be a better place if it was all just paved over. Then I sat on Mont de Sol in Santa Fe and cried with how beautiful the world was undisturbed.

I used to hate broccoli, brussel sprouts, asparagus, and ocra. Now I adore all of them except ocra. 75% change. Not bad. I used to hate Metallica and hippie music like Greatful Dead and Phish. Now I don't. I used to hate spending time with my father. Now I don't.

So when I mentioned to my dad that I thought that "two days of hanging out is about our limit" and he responded with, "you know, you're 30 now" I could only stop and think about whether or not things had changed now that I was 30. I think that there is only so much time I can spend with anyone before I need to move on. I think depending on the person it could be anywhere from one to three days, extending to up to a week if I have romantic feelings for them.

Two days is plenty. It's enough time to bring someone up to date, to discuss politics and arrive at the inevitable dead-end, to tell jokes and to mull philosophy. It's enough time to have an adventure. It's enough time to have the earth rotate a full 360 degrees. It's also enough time to get into an argument - and that is unacceptable.

I guess I'm not old enough to have one more second of anger between my father and me. I can live with that.

Posted by Matt at July 11, 2003 04:32 PM