August 31, 2005
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Topic: ya gotta believe
Went down to Shea after work, to catch the 1st game of an important 3-game set against the Phills. Bought the usual $14 upper deck seats, and moved down to the mezzanine level. Seo didn’t pitch his best, we were down 4-1 most of the game, clawed back to 4-3 heading into the 8th, when back-up catcher RAMON Castro belted a 3-run shot, to make it 6-3. Mets win!!! Pull w/in 1/2 a game of the Phills and Marlins.
Gonna try to go again tonight to see Pedro pitch. A win tonight, together w/ a Cards win over the Marlins, will put the Mets in the wild card lead. At that point, we’d be looking at a round-1 playoff match-up, METS VS. CARDINALS!!! Could be an interesting run to October.
I’m enjoying reading Dave Eggers book, You Shall Know Our Velocity (YSKOV). After strong winds postponed a flight to Greenland, they’re now in Senegal, trying to find a flight, “anywhere” as long as it gets them around the globe. I definatly have had several conversations w/ different people about that. Just sping a globe and go there. Just go to the airport and buy the cheapest int’l ticket.
Here’s a great section worth quoting, as Will first tells his mom about his plan:
“Will, this just sounds silly.”
“Well…”
“you’re just acting out, honey.”
“Well, thank you for that pice of -”
“You’ve had a rought year, I know, but – ”
“Listen – ”
“And frankly, I’m confused.”
I looked across the bed, into a mirror, and saw a face so angry and wretched I turned away.
“Tell me…why. Mom. You are confused.”
“Well, wasn’t it you who didn’t care about traveling? You used to raise such a fit when I wanted to take you on trips…”
“That was different.”
“It was you. It was you who sat right there, on that stool in teh kitchen, in the first house, anda said that you didn’t need to travel anywhere, ever. I wanted us to go somewhere exotic and you said you could do all the traveling and thinkign you’d ever need witout ever leaving the backyard.”
There’s a few things about this passage that struck me. First…is Will’s hesitation to tell his mother the plan, for the exact reason that he didn’t want to hear the response he knew was coming. Second, is the way the mother plays lawyer w/ Will, which reminds me a bit more of my sister. Clearly, it is Will’s desire to travel. So…sticking it to Will that in the past he made anti-travelling comments (which unsurprisingly…were made regarding family travel, vs. the kind of travel he was planning to do), is simply sticking it to him.
I clearly like this Will character. The conversation continues:
Mom: No one goes to Senegal!
Will: We do
Mom: You’ll get AIDS.
What also struck me was the idea of the mom not being able to understand Will’s decision and actions. To some extent, it’s a very reasonable confusion. Will’s behavior was probably unusual, the action certainly more on the eratic side of things, the risk involved possibly high.
But…underlying all this is what Will is going through. His brother had been killed in a car crash, and he had just received $80,000 for having his silhouette plastered on a light-bulb billboard….which made him feel “mistakenly, powerful…but then came back down, crashing.” All this left him feeling a bit lost, in a Dustin Hoffman in ”The Graduate” sort of way.
And that perhaps what is most difficult for Will’s mom, to understand what Will is feeling, and to try to be supportive. Maybe Will is being reckless, but, for various reasons he is in a state where this is what he feels compelled to do, and giving a closing argument as to why he’s making a mistake, if anything, is likely to fuel those reasons which are compelling this compulsive fit of travel.
