randommm

At the farmer's market last week I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said on the back: "We learn Arabic so you don't have to."

........

Nice obtuse fear-mongering? We have the Defense Language Institute here in town, where army guys and gals go to learn languages that might come in handy for people in the army to know for intelligence purposes. Dave, the guy who lives behind my house and who I went surfing with a couple times, was learning Arabic for a few years, for example. That's all they do. Just spend eight hours a day learning a language. Yikes.

I don't know if they guy wearing that shirt went to DLI or if it was a DLI-sanctioned shirt. But really? Are we feeling that vulnerable to the Arab threat? ....

Oh yeah, and he was standing at the table to sign up Republicans to vote. Big surprise there.

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I had another fun time when I signed my new lease with Amy yesterday. Our new landlord, Ray, is a 72-year-old white guy who likes to chat, as most old people do. He told us a variety of things: that he likes to take care of himself - ie, never drank or smoke and keeps active (and to his credit, it shows); that he's a Christian and that's "worked out pretty well" for him; and then he gave us a mini-speech about how travelling really opens your eyes and gets you out of your bubble.

Ok, so I didn't mind hearing his life story. I actually like listening to old people. He reminded me a lot of my grandpa, too. Probably my grandpa believes the same things this guy believes. But I found it really entertaining. So he's a Christian, with three boys, grown with children. He said that he tries to lead a moral life and that's worked out pretty well for him so far. That's so sweet! Isn't it nice when things work out like that? He worked hard in Silicon Valley, didn't go out drinking with the guys, just got where he is through pure sweat and tears. He got married, had kids, now he has a really nice family he can be proud of. But the thought flitted across my mind... would his Christianity have worked out so great for him if one of his boys had been gay? How would that work then? What happens when a monkey wrench like that gets thrown into his clear life path?

Am I sadistic for thinking these things? I'm just curious how people deal with this kind of thing.

He laid out to us that he's a creationist ("maybe you guys believe in evolution or whatever", he said, waving his hands dismissively, "but I don't."). He told us that he believes since Adam, humans have had the same mental capacity. (Ok.) But then he said that "I know some people think that 3,000 years ago people were living in caves and hunting with bows and arrows, but that's not true! I was in Pompeii, and those people had running water!" Etc.

Right. Pompeii "happened" 2,000 years ago. I'm not sure who he thinks believes that people were living in caves 3,000 years ago. It's certainly not the creationists - if according to the Bible the earth was created 6,000 years ago. And it's not the "evolutionists" either (if that's the opposite): the Neandertals (if those are the cave people we're talking about) disappeared in Europe around 30,000 years ago. Cave paintings were around about 24,000 years ago.

Anyway I guess I'm just still astonished that people stick their heads in the sand about this. Fine, he's 72. And my Oma, who's almost 90, is extremely intelligent and well-read, as well as open-minded, but she might just take Ray's side on this. Not to mention all the people my age who will probably never change from being creationists. It just seems weird to me, is all.

Especially when he gave us the pep talk at the end about how travelling really opens your eyes to things and pushes you out of your little bubble. I couldn't help snickering inside a little bit. So he's a nice guy and I'm a jerk. But I just don't get it.

Whatever, as long as he fixes my sink when I need it.