Artificial Cheese

Travelling through airports and subways over the past year or so has given me exposure to a new state of people’s time and behavior. I like to call that state “isolated public idleness”. Its that state that people are in while waiting for a plane or standing around for a train. Its an unnatural and awkward state that everyone dreads and requires foresight for most people to deal with properly.

Some people attack the ‘isolated’ portion of the fabricated term by grabbing their cell phone and having (or pretending to have) a conversation with someone who is hopefully in their own state of isolated idleness. Everyone attacks the ‘public’ portion of the term to some extent by distancing themselves away from others, whether its running to a corner of an open space to avoid interaction, fixating their field of view to avoid looking at someone, or tucking in their elbows as to not break the illusion of privacy by making physical contact.

But I want to take a look at the last word in the term. I’ve always taken notice of those who attack the idleness by whatever means necessary. This involves things like reading, opening up the laptop and just clicking around, iPods, staring at the screen on your cell phone as if there is something worthwhile on it. It even spawns spontaneous hunger when flocks of people find masticating as the perfect past time. They’re not hungry, they’re just bored.

As I type this in an airport terminal, a man just walked into the area, found that the flight as been delayed, and as fallen asleep on the ground so he doesn’t even need to face the state of idleness.

I always found myself to be above this fear, and above the need for some sort of sensory stimulation at all times. I used to take these opportunities to sit and stare, and let my thoughts go off however they please. Sometimes they’d lead to great ideas, other times they’d go in circles. Lots of them even lead to blog entries. But I always was proud of the fact that I could sit in one spot; okay with the isolation, okay with the public around me, and okay with the idleness.

Sometime between my months flying to Montreal and my new engagement in Wisconsin, I’ve lost the ability to stand idle without stimulation. I found that I’ve become one of those huddled wired up figures that line the airport hallways, feeding off of power outlets like an insect feeds on the skin of a warm blooded animal. I even looked at a man who interrupted my typing of this blog entry with disdain, as he asked if a coat on an empty chair was mine. It wasn’t mine because I was wearing mine, but I’ve never found answering a question to be a problem.

Tomorrow is the International Day of Awesomeness, so for my awesome feat I’m gonna take the earbuds out of my head, and my eyes off of the screen, and try to return to my isolated public idleness without relying on my physical senses to get me through it.