"You can't take the Earth for granted"

Yesterday I was talking with my Facebook friends about the World Economic Forum currently going on at Davos. I was feeling marginally 'morally superior' (in terms of carbon footprint) to some important people flying in their private jets to congregate at Davos to talk about climate change. But today I got such a unique perspective about climate change from my massage therapist, that I am completely blown away! And the most interesting thing is, he was not necessarily even thinking specifically about environmental toll of human activity when he said those profound words: "You can't take the Earth for granted!"

I have to give you some context.

Our firm arranges chair massages at work once a month for the employees. Some people just close their eyes and enjoy the massage quietly. I am not one of them. My masseur Dexter and I constantly chat during the massage sessions. So in the last five years of working together (more like Dexter would be working, and I would be worked on), we almost became friends. I know a bit about his family, his aspirations to become an actor (he did some modeling gigs already, and going to the new Steve Jobs movie shoot in San Jose on January 31), his occasional monotony with being a massage therapist and his episodic urges to try out some new career--typical of a mid-lifer. He just turned forty this January. So naturally the topic of our chat during today's session veered towards whether it feels special to reach forty. Dexter said, it wouldn't have felt special but for one of his clients giving him a truly unforgettable birthday present--the experience of flying in a small two-sitter plane above the Bay area. Apparently that client was a former marine and a thrill-seeker by nature, with obvious consequences on his body. Dexter's massages did him so much good with his aches and pains that he wanted to give Dexter something special for his fortieth birthday. This is what I call a win-win!

Dexter does not like flying per se. But his client convinced him to 'try something new and wild' and soak in the whole experience. They rented a small plane that was capable of doing 'tricks' that you see in the air shows. Dexter got to feel positive and negative 'g's with the plane nose-diving towards the ground from a height of 10,000 feet above the ground, and then going straight up! He got to know how to open a parachute if something bad happens. They even hit an air pocket while circling over the runway, waiting for the air traffic controller to give them clearance for landing.

"I felt alive!" Dexter said to me. "From up there, it was looking like Google Earth!" After all he is a massage therapist in the silicon valley! "It felt cleansing. It was like an out-of-body experience! As if I was temporarily detached from the challenges of daily life. As if I was given a chance to regroup to face the challenges once again when I come back on Earth!" Dexter is a philosopher. I know I am generalizing, but bartenders and massage therapists are frequently gifted that way.

After surviving the mini-turbulence caused by the air pocket, when the wheels of their plane finally kissed the ground, Dexter had a new appreciation for our old planet. "The Earth is too beautiful to spoil. You can't just dump your garbage on her. You can't just take her for granted."

This reminded me of something that I read in Space X's Anousheh Ansari's blog written in 2006 during her maiden space voyage. She wrote: "From the side windows in the little cabins and the docking compartment, where I sleep, you see the complete curvature of the Earth against the dark background of the universe. This view is actually my favorite because you see the “Whole” not the “Parts.” I always like to see the big picture before deciding or worrying about the pieces. I wish the leaders of different nations could do the same and have a world vision first, before a specific vision for their country."

The carbon budget for such an 'educational' trip to the outer space for the important people at Davos would probably be unjustifiable and much worse than flying the private jets to Davos. But part of me keeps hoping that we will be successful in teaching our children that we can't take the Earth for granted. Our generation is trying. Not all of the conversations are happening at high profile conventions. They are happening at our schools. At our homes. Thank you Bill Gates and Jimmy Fallon for giving us a chance to talk about 'poop water' with our kids.

Time

Time stood still.

So I had to take my favorite wristwatch to the watch repair shop in the neighborhood for battery replacement. 

Fred, of Fred’s Watch and Jewelry Repair, took all of 5 minutes to do his job. I didn’t even have enough time to settle down with a magazine—an October 2011 copy of Motorsports that I picked up from a delectable menu of several neat stacks of various magazines that Fred has stocked. Not that I am into cars. But when I visit my dentist, or wait outside a pediatrician’s office, or at the DMV, I tend to pick up something—Golf Digest, Vogue, Men’s Health—that I am the least likely to read in the normal course of life. And when the magazine is a couple of years old, I get the delight of revisiting a slice of time that has passed. It is like turning the pages of an old album.

Fred calls himself an artisan of a dying art. Millennials hardly wear watches. But I am no millennial. Visiting Fred's repair shop gave me the feeling of stepping into some place sacred. The cleanliness of the floor. The meticulous organization of the shop. The showcases full of wristwatches and ornate table-top watches. The tick-tock of the standing grandfather clock. Did I say the neatly stacked magazines? I completely got into the perfect ‘Saturday-of-a-long-weekend-in-January’ mood for idle musing.

They say January babies have a special connection (or shall we say obsession?) with the concept of time. Yesterday a friend reached a milestone birthday. Also, yesterday I learnt that an elderly family friend recently got diagnosed with a serious illness. In situations like these, everyone to a certain extent thinks about time. How much time has passed. How much time is left. But we the Capricorns take it to another level altogether. We write blogs after visiting a watch repair shop!

In a desperate bid to try to fit everything that I am experiencing into a framework of time, I start (over)thinking. Did the stalled watch symbolize the specter of a terminal illness? Did I take my watch to the repair shop immediately because accepting the finality of a terminal illness is still difficult for me after losing my mom two years back? Could it be that reviving the watch reflects that I am embracing getting older rather than artificially trying to hold time at a standstill? Or could it be that unknowingly I have made a new year’s resolution this time? One that involves not avoiding doing things just because I can get around it? Like switching to another wristwatch without bothering to fix the one that stalled? Or may be ironing my clothes once in a while rather than buying only wrinkle-proof clothes?

Most likely it is the case of an unofficial resolution. Not doing certain things, and figuring out a way to go on living my life without doing those things felt great for a period of time. But now it is losing its charm. Now getting the wristwatch fixed feels nicer, because it leads to the inspiration of writing a blog early into the new year. May be the real resolution is getting back more to writing. I have been averaging two blogs a year for the last few years. May be finally I am tired of thinking of myself as someone who ‘used to write.’ Even if I write three blogs this year, that will be one more than last year. After all, it is still mid-January, and I am one down already. I have enough time left. Don’t I?