So he got tagged. Two diligent guys have slept at his (building) door for a good ten days now. They followed him around, taking photos of him enjoying some cheap noodles in the morning, pricey coffee during the day, and carrot juice in the evening (his eyes were swelling as usual, and someone said carrot might help).
He tried to spice up his routine to entertain them, but there’s just so much you can do in a city of traffic jams. He felt for their wives. They must be tough cookies to let their men sleep around like that. But, most of all, he felt embarrassed, for no one actually came over to his house for something serious these days. Girls used to stay overnight. Guys too, when they wanted good VSOP. If they actually took him in now, he would have no story for people to gossip about.
That was how my friend discussed his grave situation. We laughed. Something is just plain ridiculous. Who knows George Orwell is still damn relevant. Twenty years or so have passed since we proudly talked about the Reform. There was this phrase, “We’ve come a long way,” that in early years of the Reform, people liked to say. It signified the magnitude of what has been happening back then. These days, people stay silent about what’s happening. Discussion happens when someone has a point to make. No one really has any point to make now.
Another friend of mine says, being a journalist, she feels depressed. Not that she wants to convey political messages all the time in her reports. She loves fashion, exotic resorts, and good-looking men. But the thought that when there comes a time she wants to do it, she can’t, is unbearable.
I told the friend who got tagged that nothing would happen to him. After all, he’s just an uninteresting figure that won’t make the news for a day. No embassies would stick their neck out to call for his release. No online petition would be signed. What’s the point of all the fuss?
Then I realized, we were talking logic, and logic wouldn’t apply here. He’s a writer, he writes well, and he just won’t budge. Case closed.
So I told him, try to stir things up by bringing someone back home tonight. We’ll cheer for you if you get taken in while a beauty is in company.
We need some reason to laugh at all this, otherwise…
My last two trips were, to my frustration, completely uneventful. Not that the destinations were to blame. One was Rio de Janeiro – Rio, for crying out loud. Where else can be exciting if that place is not? The other was Chicago. Navy Pier, one of its landmarks, is ranked among the top ten most popular destinations in the US. And Frank Lloyd Wright called it home.
