Everyone is real. That's the main driving idea in my life. I know it sounds obvious and probably lame, but I think it's easily forgotten. (Or maybe it is just me who can forget it and the reason I have this main idea is to keep me from forgetting it!) The guy cutting me off in traffic, he's real; he has goals and a life. The kid in school who drops his tray in the lunchroom -- real. That embarrasses him. The laughter embarrasses him. He thinks about his clumsiness for a long time, remembers it when he leasts expects it. The losing team last night, did they sleep? Did they weep? Some of the fans did, I know.
This driving idea affects the way I parent, the way I write, the way I worry about people I have never met -- which keeps me from sleeping sometimes.
I wrote a dreadful poem in college. Really, who hasn't? The main point of this atrocious piece of work was the idea that when I ride along in the car there are people everywhere, going along, doing things, going places, and they don't even know I'm wondering about them and I wonder if they are thinking thoughts like mine. (Really atrocious, seriously bad.) But I still think those THOUGHTS when I'm driving along. I try not to think about the poem.
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