Cast party part 2 2002-04-26

So then this guy shows up. Nieghbor, his name's Ryan.

Seemed friendly, nice enough sort of fellow, didn't pay much attention to him.

Until people started leaving. I was engaged in conversation with Adrienne and her friend Dinell (supercool chick), so I didn't really feel pressured to leave, and didn't really want to anyway.

All of a sudden, I notice that it's me, Nell, Adrienne, Moira (another cool chick, married), and this guy Ryan.

And Ryan jumps into our conversation (more like interrupts), saying "what's the most amazing experience you guys have ever had?"

Adrienne, Nell, and I immediately decide it's time for another shot (Tequila Rose, yum) before we answer any more questions. We sit back down, bolstered by alcohol, and say, "we're performers, pick a performance, any performance, and it's the most amazing. They are all amazing."

Ryan then proceeds to attempt to get philosophical on us. Talking about what truth is, how thought only leads to conflict, and there is no truth but fact, and that knowledge makes a man wise, and wisdom makes a man silent.

A whole bunch of ideas. Ideas about energy, and connection, and experience.

Normally, I love conversations like that. But it soon became apparent that this guy had only the thinnest of ideas about all these things. Like he read an intro to philosophical concepts book and decided that it said everything. He hadn't developed any idea beyond its barest concept. And each concept was a textbook idea of it. Talk about herd mentality, this guy felt that thought breeds conflict!

Needless to say, we all disagreed with most of the things he said. I disagreed with everything he said, but that was because I was the only one out of the group who had done any serious thinking about any of these things.

The girls were kind of like an audience, much to my dismay. They would listen to him, he would say something that sounded profound, and they would start nodding and getting pensive. I would sigh and present an alternative idea, which the girls felt explained the situation better. I was beginning to feel like a teacher of philosophic concepts. I don't want to teach these things, I want people to discover this stuff on their own.

Anyway, this guy's response to any of my points was to make circular arguments that didn't make any sense, because he felt that his way of thinking explained everything, so why should he explain himself? He kept going back to thought breed conflict, truth being fact, fact breeding knowledge, knowledge breeding wisdom, and wisdom bringing silence, and how any wise man who knows this would be silent about it.

So I asked him what if the wise man was a teacher? Should he be silent then?

Ryan didn't have an answer, so he left.

By this time I was rip-roaring drunk (alcohol being a perfect companion to philosophic thought), and passed out on Adrienne's couch.

Here endeth my evening...