Plans change. Flexibility enables such changes. Thus, flexibility is good. For example, our plans last night included dinner at Doe’s, but on arrival, we discovered it was closed for the day. So we made an adjustment. Instead of steak, we had Vietnamese. Considering how hungry I was (not very), a vermicelli bowl was preferable to a mass of beef. And, earlier in the day, we viewed the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at Crystal Bridges, as planned, but did not go on to see the rest of the museum; we were tired and desired a nap…and some afternoon wine. Flexibility. This morning, after breakfast with mi novia’s family, we will drive back home, saving considerable money by checking out of the motel a day early. Flexibility. We can come back any time, at our pleasure. And we shall. We are flexible.
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I understand how small groups of like-minded people can decide to form communes of one kind or another. By pooling their financial resources, they can create refuges that offer them protections against a society gone mad. The protections afforded them cannot be guaranteed, but banding together improves their chances of avoiding the insanity of dangerous social deviance on steroids. Unfortunately, pursuing such protections requires risk-taking and bravery, two elements in short supply. We (the collective “we”) are too comfortable to take risks, even when avoiding those risks is more dangerous and the avoidance is more likely to result in chaos. We think “it can’t happen here…not to us,” but it can. And it might.
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Time to move along, here.
