8/22/97 - Innocuous Timestamp.

     Ooh, Ben posted his .plan late for the first
     time, a whole day after it was supposed to
     be due.  What could drive an otherwise
     perfectly healthy man to commit such an
     unthinka...you get the point.

     My parents got back from Europe.  Turns out
     we finally got some timesharing space in
     Hawaii.  Of all the questions one could ask,
     the pervading one for me was, "How could I
     get Anna there?"

     I'm only going to touch on this one a bit.
     Getting old happens very, very slowly, with
     a trickle turning into a downpour.  You
     don't notice it unless you pay attention.
     Time is very sly, cunning, and patient.
     Only because it can be.  It is immortal,
     eternal, the greatest power than there
     could ever be.  Even greater, I think,
     than the gods.

     One should model himself after Time, to
     become the most powerful person in the
     world.  Perhaps Bill Gates realizes this...

     But anyway.  Yesterday I was helping my
     roommate pack for college.  This year
     we're moving up from a cramped dorm room
     to a cramped two-bedroom place.  We have
     considerably more freedom now, what with
     room to cook and a car to use.  Gradually
     working our ways up to independence from
     school.  You know how it is.

     Peers are beginning to say things like,
     "I remember when <insert band> was the
     genuine thing, not the mainstream joke
     they are now!" and "I have no energy
     to go play tennis," and "I knocked my
     girlfriend up with twins."  Ah yes, the
     subtle things.

     The strange thing is that I'm not old at
     all.  When one compares how much I know
     and how much I've learned against how
     old I am, the accomplishment is staggering.
     No humility there.  And when Anna and I
     made London ours, we were by far the
     youngest and most romantic couple at
     places like the Globe.  Oh, do we have
     much in store for each other...  Youth
     and love are so wildly dangerous together,
     especially if the couple knows exactly
     how to exploit that.

     So here's to enjoying both the pleasurable
     excesses and vigor of youth, and the
     cunning, carefully measured ways of
     adulthood.  Don't you wish you had come
     to this realization when you were my age?

       "He who thinks himself wise, O heavens!
        is a great fool."

       Bah, like Voltaire knew what he was
       talking about.

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