isn’t it strange that people don’t think about the point of life more often? i rarely do, and i feel like the combination of long car drives and my preference for silence over music makes me a fairly self-reflexive person..

seriously, what is the point of life? (i don’t mean that sentence to be read with a negative tone.. i’m talking pure curiousity) is it to be happy, b/c that seems sort of vapid.. is it to experience a few moments of clarity from time to time (like the euphoria that climbers who have ascended Everest talk about)? is it to try everything once?

it seems (at least to me) to be a question worth asking on a fairly regular basis.. b/c if, at almost any point in your life or your day, you hope that time will pass quickly, then something is wrong, i think, unless you have some extended theory about an afterlife..

it really is a troubling question.. i wonder if it will keep me up tonight..

tonight i was talking with an old friend who is in a master’s program for genetic counseling.

we only had a brief conversation, and during half of that i was busy trumpeting my own uneducated opinions on things, but as far as i understand, society is now able to identify major genetic defects (i don’t mean defects with any sort of negative connotation, but i can’t think of a better word).. pretty crazy, huh..

i’ve already thought (briefly) about what classical music i want to play to my unborn baby.. i’ve already thought about what instrument i want to teach him/her first.. i’ve already wondered about what sports him/her might play..

so what if a doctor came to me with a checklist of traits to favor (i’m sorry to all the sciency people that are reading this.. i’m sure that my wording is imprecise and the time table for all this is in the decently distant future).. tall over short? skinny over fat? no back hair over back hari?

is it wrong that i’m loosely aligning these poles in positive/negative groups?

here’s the weird thing: if my child had crooked teeth, i would support him/her getting braces.. so if a doctor offered to choose for traits that would favor better teeth, would i pick it?

confusing thoughts for a saturday evening.. i’ll hope that when my friend graduates she’ll be able to clarify all of this..

ps. a shout-out to the roll dawgs (it’s the only appropriate spelling for them :)

i miss my electric toothbrush.. it’s a braun, i think, and it makes my teeth and gums feel happy..

i left it behind because i decided that the extra space it would take in my bathroom bag would cripple my ability to pack a good day pack, and by extension, be a good houseguest. on the road, such measures of success are meted out in cubic centimeters.

today, like yesterday and the day before it, i woke up and cleaned my mouth with an old-fashioned, soft-bristled tooth brush. it was like solving a quadratic equation with an abacus.

it’s funny how proud and/or ashamed we are of genetic legacies. i am illogically vain about my teeth (never a cavity or braces), even though i haven’t been more dentally responsible than anyone else i know. conversely, i’ve always envied the fact that dave can wash his face with hotel soap and wake up so pretty.

why is natural talent so sexy (at least to me?) why have i always preferred kobe bryant to mark madsen (at least before the legal stuff).. maddog is such a hard-working scrapper, and kobe is just plain physically gifted.. why do i disdain hardwork?

but is the propensity to work hard equally genetic? was mark madsen born with a scrapper’s mentality? is it all the same?

these are some of the confusing thoughts that enter one’s mind while spending 26 hours in a van.