In which I pick up an interesting hitchhiker

[zabster]

Longish entry below the cut.

This afternoon I drove down to Santa Cruz from Felton to go swimming with my friend Irene and her two little ones.  I noticed a man standing by the side of the road.  I took another look at him in my rear view mirror, and saw that he had a white beard, and his thumb out.

I don't generally pick up strangers when I am

Comments

My two cents

[graeco_celt]

Hmm, according to Wikipedia, he's also an accomplished poet and translator.

It's a cliché, I know, but 'genius' is often accompanied by what appear to be a variety of forms of 'madness'.

I have to say, though, that I've known a number of people who are deemed 'crazy' by society whose only social failing, as far as I can see, is not holding back on their real feelings and beliefs about things.
There are plenty of topics that I could speak absolutely freely and fully and honestly about, that would probably see people advising my husband that I 'need help' and maybe need to be put somewhere that can give me that help.

Society trains us not to act freely on our feelings and emotions. You can pretty much get away with such things, as a child, on the basis that you don't know any better but once you're an adult, you'll be labelled crazy if you don't pull your head in and behave 'normally'. :S

Also (because I'm anal)...

[graeco_celt]

Theroux.
:)

Re: Also (because I'm anal)...

[zabster]

Oops! Thanks!!

I hope you are right, that he is a genius whose unpopular ideas (at that time and place) resulted in him being seen as crazy when he wasn't. But I don't know. He struck me as being on the edge of losing it. And I guess I don't understand why someone would decide to be a candidate for president when he doesn't have a shot in hell... I doubt he can get more media attention for causes he cares about because he is running for president than by some other means...