Tuesday, June 08, 2004
I'm preparing for a family vacation next week and working feverishly through major upheavals at work that all seem to have reached crisis points at the same time I'm due to leave. So what's the perfect thing to have happen? A carload of jokers drove down my street last night busting out car windows... lucky me, a new window is only $205 installed.
I never have understood the thrill of destruction... oh, soaping windows or a little catchy restroom graffiti, a little fancy driving, sure... but breaking out car windows? Where's the thrill in that? What's the attraction? I imagine them sitting around some parking lot, each with a can of Bud and hats on backwards saying, "Oh, man, did you tag that van window!". . . No . . . that just doesn't ring true to me.
At my last high school reunion I listened to some stories, like some guys I knew (who I never would have suspected as being crazy at the time) aimed a starter pistol out their car window at a car next to them. A car chase ensued that covered most of two counties and ended with police at parents' doors. No damage done, but damage could have been done had there been an accident. But these guys, last night, came down our street looking to pop car windows.
It's hard to get my head around that... it's not like stealing, where they get something out of it (although as I was scheduling the repair I thought, "wouldn't it be smart for the auto-glass place to hire teenagers to go around smashing out windows"). I don't know... it's probably something I shouldn't spend time trying to figure out... like The Pew Lady says, it's prideful to play the "What if" game. I imagine it's prideful to play the "Why do people do the things they do" game as well; it just distracts you from things to which you should be paying attention and makes you linger on the randomness of specificities.
I never have understood the thrill of destruction... oh, soaping windows or a little catchy restroom graffiti, a little fancy driving, sure... but breaking out car windows? Where's the thrill in that? What's the attraction? I imagine them sitting around some parking lot, each with a can of Bud and hats on backwards saying, "Oh, man, did you tag that van window!". . . No . . . that just doesn't ring true to me.
At my last high school reunion I listened to some stories, like some guys I knew (who I never would have suspected as being crazy at the time) aimed a starter pistol out their car window at a car next to them. A car chase ensued that covered most of two counties and ended with police at parents' doors. No damage done, but damage could have been done had there been an accident. But these guys, last night, came down our street looking to pop car windows.
It's hard to get my head around that... it's not like stealing, where they get something out of it (although as I was scheduling the repair I thought, "wouldn't it be smart for the auto-glass place to hire teenagers to go around smashing out windows"). I don't know... it's probably something I shouldn't spend time trying to figure out... like The Pew Lady says, it's prideful to play the "What if" game. I imagine it's prideful to play the "Why do people do the things they do" game as well; it just distracts you from things to which you should be paying attention and makes you linger on the randomness of specificities.
