Random Interpretations

Here's an exercise: The next time one of your Facebook or Twitter friends posts a good quote, no matter the source, send that quote around via a different medium, like text, or e-mail. See what people think.

I'll start: Chris Jones tweeted this David Foster Wallace quote last night. While perhaps random -- heck, tons of what winds up in your Twitter feed appears so -- I enjoyed the message of it, and really gave it some thought. Then I wanted to know what a few friends thought about it.

* My buddy El Frijol said, "Psychobabble, mostly..."

I asked him if he wanted to elaborate. He wanted to know the context. I said there was none. He said, "Sorry. Don't have anything to say."

* One co-worker asked, "Are you high?"

I replied that I was in fact not, that I wanted to know how a few smart folks interpreted it. He then wondered why I'd asked him.

He added, "Um, people try to sound cool out of fear of being themselves?"

* The wife said, "Hmm. It's maybe that acting like you're too cool, through cynicism, is a reflection of fear of authenticity?" I asked her if she had any thoughts about emotion. She said, "Too cool for sentimentality or emotion."

That wily cat Cecil said, "People are too cool for their own damn good. It's the whole notion of ironic detachment -- this supposed removal. The code of the super-hipster."

* Another co-worker: "Are you drunk?"

Shows what my work partners think of my Saturday-night philosophical meanderings. He later added, "That's too much of a question for me to handle in my state of mind...I'll have to sleep on it."

Shows what I might think about his Saturday nights.

Old Man Whitey reached deep into the thinking pockets:

"Maybe, saying what is perceived as deviant opinion, punk, just to be different instead of being true to a common goodness...The trendiness of being untrendy...Which would be fear, disguised by cynical outward actions, done in a manner built on the accepted way of being unacceptable. Black clothes, make-up to change your real appearance. Dr. Drew would add drugs as a way to escape one's truth..."

Old No. 7 embraced brevity: "Real men cry."

A third co-worker: "Hhmmm:/"

Finally, The Lone Reader chimed in this morning: "Sounds good. It's the old, 'if I don't give a shit, then I'll never have anything to lose.' Problem is, you'll never have anything to gain, either."

*My sister-in-law, who, for the record, embodies awesome, and you should hire her to be your personal assistant, your scribe, your sole source of entertainment, felt it was "pretty straightforward...spot on...simple and insightful," something "generally young (cool) people have the tendency" to do so "more. To act cool. Play tough."

An interesting range, then, of responses.

What're your thoughts?