Papel Picado

I do not think of myself as a knowledge worker, or a person with a lot of knowledge in general. I did not complete more than a few months of college. When I applied for jobs in Chicago I was unable to convey to prospective employers my experience in the field even though restaurant work is what I have done for the past decade. I knew how to show them. The other day I took a relaxing bath with epson salts, spearmint and eucalyptus and listened to a podcast about the importance of forgetting.

Tonight as I rode my bike home across the railroad tracks, I thought about how the subjects of the podcast discussed integrative technology’s affect on the importance of recall. In the past a wise person was educated to remember lots of facts. Now we all have a phone connected to the internet- to each other. And with the connection, anything seems possible.

The railroad tracks badly shook my bike. It has not been proven, but I believe the universe and by the universe I mean our human experience, as existing not just in the present moment. And as we collectively drift we together remember what happened and sense what happens next. In the recent past, science fiction writers helped the public imagine this future that no one remembers anymore except in nostalgia. For the new future, who knows. I find it hard to see the first person experience as is extending much farther.

I remember today’s date as the anniversary with my first girlfriend. I was seventeen. My mom’s house was crumbling. The past itself was being demolished like in a Charlie Kaufman film. My friend Adrianna asked how late I am going to sleep on Sunday. Hope to wake up before noon, but dreams are a bridge home again. Sometimes when I’m stopped- at an intersection on my bike and lined up with all the cars- in my mind I go way back. I am a chubby kid in swim trunks and a wet teeshirt, on a boogie board, bobbing in the ocean. And the lights turn green and we all roll forward.