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Show “August 17, 1999 . WASATCH COUNTY COURIER _ The Struggle for Evolution: a report from the trenches bheteno a Matthew Heimburger, Contributing Writer a fell off ‘He wagon the other aay All my littlé sayings and self-prom- ome Lovcdd. _ises came to naught within a few seconds, and| began to hear that lit- tle, familiar voice whisper: “What's the big deal? Everyone does it.” fA little. isn’t going to. hurt you.’ Sas! re just doing lobe a be for social reasons My little family was on a vacation that | couldn’t join them on-maybe I was hoping to cure my loneliness? Well, either way, old habits die hard. So- Body be Iti ll AL ED TL Le it " “yieelidin't “because I was all alone. while checking first to make of Knowledge You live here and . you play here. sure I hose. ' Front neighborhoods, alike. | _ learned that it would be a hot week in St. George, and that Larry was still bitter about losing Scott to the Want to work here? 2 Meee ch lM Watch tee) in the coming weeks for opportunities with ErgoWeb", Inc. We are an exciting, erowing company, and are looking for qualified people to make our vision a ‘reality. Knicks. Next, a quick glance at who was seen with whom in an L:A. suburb called Hollywood helped me to feel connected. again to the bold and beautiful of American culture. I took a break to eat,. but ended up _ taking my food to the T.V. room and was back at the sitcoms for a few ‘more hours. In turn, a courtroom drama suggested that not all accused are guilty, and that lawyers might just be our greatest defenders of freedom--in between love affairs. Later, I watched the news again with just enough variation to keep me attentive. Then Jay and David told some jokes about the presiden- _tial candidates, grilled some celebrities about their new movies coming: soon to a theatre near me, and finally introduced some bands eager to » sell their CDs to my son. And. all: throughout the evening, | was treated to the fast-lipped “ mantras of advertisers: finding out that oe hair, my car, my noes, and For more information, check i Hisahihilee vorennen lala pinislttdasaatindiesistllaintelanan Saline aan Oem out our world turn off the sprinkler and coil the The grass was long and wet. There were crickets. The water in the irrigation ditch chattered on like kids on the first day of school. | _ casually glanced at the sky and was astounded at the intensity of the Milky Way. Jupiter, too, was as bright as I’ve ever seen it and it held my gaze until, out of the corner of my eye, a shooting star streaked across the heavens. The Perseid meteor shower, eluded to earlier by a smiling T.V. weatherman I’ve that made me a better human being. Our planet hurls through space, revolving around a precious source of heat and light, while expanding in all directions along with other worlds. It is a precariously small, insignificant position to be in. But, here we are anyway-loving and | mourning, living and dying, asking and waiting. Evolving basically: as individuals moving from innocence to experience to wisdom-with or without a Kansas school board’s per~ mission. And with, the same poten~ tial for us as a society, and a human race. It’s slow-going change at all levels, but time is the key-with_ a with stock footage, was in full ‘swing right above the dark silhouette of my thousand ways to use every day, hour, and minute. | home. = stood transfixed. My nek beast to mir a the harsh angle of looking up. After a few minutes more of monitoring the pathways of comet dust slamming into the Earth’s atmosphere, I went in. I turned off lights and then sat in a chair near our front window to _ watch the summer sky some more. The windows were open and the air smelled faintly of water. I had wasted my last. seven. hours; had failed to help a single person, including myself, see the larger glory _of existence. My eyes widened at that thought, then even more when I realized that I was still alive and had just spent the better part of an hour not with T.V. but in a conver- sation between my soul and the - Universe. I renewed myself to keep that conversation going indefinitely. For some reason, I took a tally of my > With a sudden feeling of consciouslong evening, and quickly my seven. ness, and an inexplicable gratitude, | hours of television seemed a cruel went back outside. J] looked around waste of time. The altogether familat neighboring homes to see if anyiar images and social commentary one else was out watching the faded as | watched the stars-both Perseids; to find someone, anyone, stationary and streaking. | realized to connect with. Many houses were _that a few short minutes of looking - dark, but. from many more an eerie, -at distant points of light had left me silver-blue glow emanated from more connected to the larger world than the best efforts of New York _ upstairs City and Los Angeles producers. You know, | realized, common - have grandparaes in. St. | George, Flickering. Matthew ‘Heimburger is a teacher of I have little in with. Jerry and Elaine. bedrooms. Flickering. American history and literature ~UVSC-Wasatch Campus and BYU. at Ny Courier Weather Thurs www.ergoweb.com 7 City summer I walked with bare feet. to of self-improvement, but me a better father, or car that made me a better husband, or model home outside into the cool air of a Heber own yet to find the shampoo that made the snowy images and catchy sound- myself some orange juice and... turned on the television. A wave of euphoria swept ehiotab my sitcom starved brain as I at once -_ recognized the presence of old friends. Homer, Hawkeye, Kramer. _ They frolicked and joked and reminded me of the absurdity of everyday life. Then my friends at -KSL enlightened me to the day’s events in faraway lands and Wasatch - ophy At its end, drunk and reeling from night. their that come at the expense of others’ physical features or emotional weaknesses. And hey, I love the philos- about séven hours of television that night.. Digestion. would come later. - wouldn’t be discovered-I fully gave in to my greatest weakness. I poured handle own actions anyway. I do appreciate a good joke, but tire of the laughs without it, I couldn’t get it into my system fast enough. I devoured tracks, | stumbled can I’d trade the Jazz as NBA champions for my son as confident T-ball player any day. I’ve yet to be _. prosecuted and prefer to defend my _ It was strange. Having gone sO" — any- they weather. New Millennium. y.” Actually; I knew that if I did ‘Share. our LM I A it socially, but possibly my life, weren’t good enough by today’s standards. Thankfully, help was available’ in easy installments-with little or noth~ ing down and no payments until the Fri Aug19 = 20 91/63 94/62 Sat Aug 21 ~ Sun Mon Aug 22 Aug 23 _ 93/82 90/59 ErgoWeb®, Inc. Ergonomics for Every Body~ ©1999 ErgoWeb, Inc. ErgoWeb is a registered trademark of and “Ergonomics for Every Body” is a trademark of nea Inc. 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