Day 3,565 —Raccoon in a Tree—

I was gazing through the fog because I saw something shiny in the tree, but what was it? Upon further inspection, it was a raccoon sprawled out, with his eyes looking down at me. He didn’t see me looking back, but when he did, he hid his eyes, but I could still see his legs and arms extended, so he could lay comfortably on the tree.

I went to bed before 9:30 and read some before going to sleep. I thought about going through all my favorite books and rereading them again. Could this be the year of the great reread?! I am rereading Breakfast of Champions right now. I loved it when I first read it in my early twenties. It is such a sad book. And it is sad in the way intelligence is defined. So much of the book suggests that everyone is a bad guy, which used to come off to me as savvy and intelligent, and now I see it as lazy lazy lazy and deceptive.

Imagine if there were two different trails you could take that both took you to the place you wanted to go. One is tough with hills and sections not marked, while the other one adds an additional 10 miles and takes you through poison ivy, a hornet nest, and an area populated by poison snakes.

One guy sees that they are both tough but takes the first trail. The other guy looks at the trails and the description and says, “All these trails are the same! It doesn’t matter! I’ll take the second trail. “Today, people think those who think like the second guy are “smart.” And see the world for the way it really is. 

Some might see the second guy as foolish. I see the second guy as someone who is afraid to try, so they make bad choices and blame everyone else for their mistakes. I used to be the second guy, partly because of books like Breakfast of Champions.