waiter, make mine blue

There's this man who is always always by the door of his garage, almost all the time. I know this because I walk past him on my way to the university, on my way back, on my way to buy my bread, on my way to the bank - basically on the way to anything East-wards of my house. I say East only because I know you wouldn't know any better, and neither do I, so what the hell.

Now, back to the man. He was just 'man by garage door' (I really like the word garage and I have no clue why), till yesterday. It must have been a profound something playing on the ipod, but seeing him then suddenly made me wonder if, as a kid, he ever imagined that this is what he would be doing for a large part of time. Then from there, of course as always in my head, it came around to me and then the world at large.

I never ever imagined I'd be walking down the cobbled streets of a city in France, loving the smell of freshly baked baguette, and seeing man by door every time I went by to get my daily fix. As kids did any of us realize that we'd have our hearts broken, several times; or that we'd break other unrelated hearts in time; that there'd be times when we'd choose to sit rather than dance; or that we'd fall off cycles when older, considering how pro we were at hands-free-ing our way down the street. Sigh.

Along related lines, why do we ask kids what they want to be? They have no clue that becoming a pilot would actually involve choosing to do chemistry and physics in the years to come. I honestly don't even get why people ask non-kids what they want to do next, unless it involves someone they just met and need a conversational lubricant.

What's weird is when people hit 30-35, these questions somehow cease to be. How is a 32-year-old working-type person more off the hook than an employed 23-year-old? At this point, somehow the question of whether it should be seen as a compliment or an insult comes about, no? Blaggards! Best is not to see I guess, but the logical progressionality theorem allows for the thought process to pass.

I say avoid the damn question altogether. I'm personally not a fan of it, since my laziness mostly allows me only to think of the here and now. But I also say, if you're prone to asking, then ask it of everyone. As glibly. You can always want to do things differently or do different things. Not just in retrospect, but even looking forward.

I know I've caught myself thinking it now and I have a feeling no matter how old I get there'll be lots of "when I'm older, I'm going to..." moments. It's nice to look forward to things that you're leaving for your future self to deal with.

In other words, Positive Procrastination! w00t.

Update from an older me in 2016: I guess I understand why people talk to children about their aspirations. It turns out to be quite fun as kids tend to have a most uninhibited range of ambitions. Talking to them also gets them to express and build on their imagination. It also helps the parent or teacher in the conversation equip the children with tools that could help them better understand those ambitions.