Rooms

I'm going to base this moment on who I'm stuck in a room with. That's what life is. It's a series of rooms, and who we get stuck in those rooms with, adds up to what our lives are.


I've never been more convinced of the veracity in this dictum. Traveling and experiencing new cultures comprised of a plethora of diverse personalities all united under some common understanding, under some unique vibe that echoes throughout their words, actions, thoughts, and understandings reveals this ... and discovering what that vibe is, what makes seemingly inimical individuals jive may be the ultimate puzzle.. and figuring out how you want to carve your own edges to make your own self fit into the puzzle is where life begins.. and all of the different ways we carve our edges in order to fit into the puzzles that comprise our lives is ultimately who we are.. and the coalescence of all of the different vibes reverberating off of each other creates the abstract mortal energy that structures our world.


So then when we enter into new situations, new "rooms," is it really about being yourself, or is it about finding the vibe, reinventing yourself in light of the vibe, and acting accordingly? Maybe all of the different situations, experiences, adventures we get ourselves into are not just different ways to experience ourselves, but rather things that merely serve a didactic function, namely to expose us to the ultimate truth that there is no one vibe, and thats the fun in life; trying to fit in in light of the different vibes that comprise our lives. 


When I went to my brother's graduation this weekend we had a picnic at his fraternity. The way the frat brothers talked about each other to parents or introduced each other was totally predictable. "Oh so-and-so, he's a spectacular guy. Probably the best such-and-such I've ever seen. He's going on to (insert accomplishment here) and he's going to be incredibly successful."  Totally positive and complimentary all the way. That was just the vibe. And to outsiders it looks as if these are the nicest guys on the planet. And don't get me wrong, they were great guys, but they were also wise to the vibe, respectful of it, and totally subservient to it. And this is just one instance of many... Everything has a vibe, an energy, a raison d'etre driving it forward. Everything is puzzling, alive, essentially predictable once you figure out why. 


Ironically, predictability seems to have inherited a bad reputation. The minute we discover that something, some person, some way of being is predictable, the minute that we discover how we can manipulate, excite, entertain, or make a person or group feel a certain way we become disenchanted, disillusioned, bored, or even repulsed. So we look elsewhere for excitement, newness, unpredictability. But at other times we crave predictability, something reliable, something constant......


So what I'm wondering is if the way we talk about each other, the things we say, the way we are, the things we do when we are in these environments, when we become wise to the vibe, are completely empty, just different ways for us to fit in. From the inside.. unifying, instructive, disingenuine, ways to different between us and them. From the outside.. spectacular, genuine, and fresh. So in terms of these different subcultures, are there such things as better or worse? I mean positive energy does breed positive results right? But negative energy can also be unifying. And if it is closeness, understanding, empathy, connection that we seek, then does the type of energy really matter? Or is it all just energy...