People Who Will Talk To Me (Part 1)

This is probably some very obvious advice that I am about to give, but I will give it anyway. When you are in an airport, or train station, no matter what country you are in, look around the waiting room for the person that you imagine to be least like yourself, and strike up a conversation. This is the surest way to remind yourself that the DNA, and neuro structure of everyone is nearly the same.

David Foster Wallace was not only the best writer of my generation, but also the most observant of the deeper experience of being my generation. One of the things he states in several essays is that a writer is sometimes the creepy figure on the subway who is watching you. He felt that writers were inherently voyeuristic, which may be right. He further expanded the voyeurism, by doing what he related to a mathematical function of integrating the American experience. This is a step removed from direct observation. Instead of watching real people on real subways, the first derivative of such spying is watching them on television. If watching people on television is the first derivative, then watching characters played by actors, who are commenting on real people is the second derivative. This is such a profound statement, as he realized the metavoyeurism of Americans, including himself, who spend so much time analyzing the analysis of human behavior. He elevates this to a philosophical conquest, and places our generation with the postmodernists of the 1960’s, since we are doing this complex structure for 6 hours per day on average (watching TV. This was 1993 that he wrote this).  I love this analysis, but am not a writer like Wallace, so did not want to be the first derivative of an American, but to see what an American really is. The strange discovery from all of this is that it is difficult to separate the two.

This might not be relevant here, but Wallace hanged himself 2 years ago.

I was sitting in the bar at New York LaGuardia airport, drinking a beer and looking for someone to talk to. It was not really the way I make it sound here. I wasn’t actually doing an experiment on Americans of 2010. Really I was lonely at the bar, and since I can’t seem to do anything without purpose(except drink the beer) I chose my purpose as this exploration of people that I think will be different than me. Just the quest in this instance is fun. I immediately thought about this from an outsider’s perspective, and realized that if someone were to do this same experiment in the bar, I would likely be the chosen subject, as I am wearing a 1940’s style fedora, a striped shirt with a plaid blazer, Woody Allen style glasses and white and gold sneakers. Taking notice of this I sat next to a 20ish year old man who was strong, tattooed with a flag tee tee-shirt, US Navy cap and military style shaved hair. Rather than tell you the conversation in prose form, here is a rough version of the conversation as a dialog:

Me: Hi. Are you taking that plane to Akron? If so we better finish these tall Coors Lights fast, because it will board soon. The plane leaves at 7:59.

Kevin: No I am going to Virginia. I will have one more beer before I go. (He downs the beer and orders another. I do the same.)

Me: Oh Virginia. I used to go to Virginia Beach when I was a kid. What time does your flight leave?

Kevin: 7:30. I drove through Ohio once. Virginia is such a bitch of a state. Too long.

Me: 7:30 is soon. Are you sure you have time for another beer?

Kevin: I haven’t had a beer in 6 months.

Me: Jesus Christ! That is a long time! Why not?

Kevin: I am in the Navy.

Me: Don’t they drink beer in the Navy?

Kevin: It isn’t allowed. On English ships they have a bar you know, but we can’t handle it.

Me: What do you think about Obama’s statement about Enriched Uranium getting in the hands of Al-Qaida being the most serious threat to world security?

Kevin: I don’t watch the news.

(There are 15 televisions directly in front of us. Of them, at least 6 are showing Obama making this very statement)

Me: What do you do on the ship while not drinking beer?

Kevin: We never drink beer. The English can have two each day.

Me: Right. What is your job?

Kevin: I run the machine shop.

Me: Really? That is interesting. Do you do make parts to repair the ship and the planes?

Kevin: Yes we have all a lot of good machines.

Me: CNC machines?

Kevin: Yes. And a stock of sheet metal, mostly Aluminum.

Me: Do the planes use any composite materials? I am a material scientist, and interested in these materials.

(He turns to me, clearly interested)

Kevin: Yeah. They are cool. They have five layers of carbon mesh, stacked on top of each other like this. (Shows me his fingers from both hands crossing each other) If part of one layer is damaged, it does not hurt the plane, because the next level will absorb the shock. They are also light, and faster than the metal planes.

Oh shit. My plane is boarding. (he drinks the lion’s share of the 22 oz beer in one gulp) I am Kevin. (he shakes my hand)

Me: Matthew. I am so interested in the composite airplanes. You know so much more about them than I do, and seem so much more into the technology than my colleagues’.  It's a shame that you have to go.

Kevin: Here is my e-mail address. (writes it on a napkin) Next time you come to Virginia Beach let me know. I can show you the planes.

Me: Thanks a lot. That is so nice of you.

(He leaves)