The True Life
By Benjamin Michael Simon
There was one line in the middle of chapter six of Huxley's Brave New World that I just could not stop reading..." 'Talking? But what about?' Walking and talking - that seemed a very odd way of spending an afternoon" (Huxley p.93). It certainly is fitting that this would appear this week, as I have spent an overwhelming amount of time (especially thanks in part to yesterday's date) just sitting around on my couch with my roommates, basically feeling like a potato in the process. It is unbelievable how just two months ago, I was seeking more alone time, as I did not feel as though I had enough time to process a lot of the stressful/painful things going on in my life. Now, I envy the time when the problems I had did not consist of worrying about the health and safety of my family, family-friends, and even friends just blocks away from me in San Luis Obispo. The only thing we can do, unfortunately, is walk around our backyards...talking. Maybe for some people it is praying, and maybe for some people it is cursing, but the thing that I have missed most since going into quarantine is really laughing. It was Jim Valvano, who battled cancer throughout the 1990's and founder of the V Foundation that said it is important to laugh, think and cry in order to have a full day, and that if you did, "it was a heck of a day". I, for a fact, can say I have spent too much time over the last few weeks thinking and crying, but certainly not enough laughing.
On a rather separate note, one of the more horrifying parts about the middle third or so of this novel was reading about the prevention of disease through blood transfusion, and how that results in a "cracking" of the body at the end of life. While technology has made incredible advancements that help save tons of lives, I frequently worry about the personal integrity that is required to functionally operate this technology. Simply put, if our society reaches a point where we cannot trust our doctors and scientists to provide accurate, helpful information, then what is the point of making technological advancements at all? In fact, they could just be used to harm others. Just the other day I was watching a Netflix documentary in which over 30,000 Massachusetts citizens had their drug possession charges potentially forged by the laboratory that was supposed to be analyzing the drug samples, leading to a plethora of mischarging. While one could argue that my generation of college students is doing the "cracking" on our own via hard drugs, Juuls and other forms of nicotine, it is still the burden of the scientists, doctors, and even leaders of the country to inform people about the severity of their decision, whether or not they choose to listen. Much like the people who are not sheltering-in-place, ultimately the punishment will be their own.