Protocol

There’s more to be said on the topic of yoga, to be sure, but I thought I would harness the momentum the blog has developed with this short but timely entry which demonstrates, anecdotally but convincingly, how careful observation of the show ER has helped me navigate life’s little emergencies.

For the past eight days I have been living aboard a bus with six other gentleman as part of a somewhat unusual project.  Basically we’re traveling across country to see what we see and to collect these observations into a website promoting the new album by a band the name of which I am currently not allowed to reveal.

Life on the bus has many vicissitudes but rather than turn this into a travel journal (and thereby risk exposing some of the limitations of this blog’s stated aim) let me just say that I find myself thinking twice before doing anything because at day eight people are running tight enough that you never know where you’re going to step in it.

For example, one major component of this trip has been that our Chief has been riding the front of the bus taking pictures of the road ahead.  He has been incredibly diligent about this and now has something on the order of twenty thousand pictures of the road ahead which he is going to compile into a kind of video flip book.  Previews suggest that the end result will be mesmerizing.

To do this, he has essentially crossed the US standing up, making for very long days.  Combine this with the very long nights he has spent working with the rest of the crew photographing the places we stop or else working with these photos to create the site and—well, sleep hygiene is not being maintained, let it be said.  Last night I shut the light out at two and I was the first in the bunks.  It is now 5:00 and we are on the road again and I am up and count myself lucky to have had such a languorous time abed. 

The chief however, for the first time in the trip, has not answered the bell.  That means these miles of road, shrouded in darkness though they may be, are the first to escape documentation since our departure from Manhattan 8 days ago. 

This sets up a conflict.  Chief needs sleep.  Needs it.  The road needs to be documented.  The miles are slipping away.  His camera is right there.  I am up.  Why don’t I take that camera up to the bridge and begin snapping photos, filling in as best I can?  Why indeed?

Why shouldn’t Chen insert a central line unsupervised?  Because she might lose the guide-wire and endanger a patient’s life.  But surely no such harm can come from simply taking pictures.

Well that’s the point.  I don’t know what harm can come.  I can’t imagine it.  But the fact remains, I look at that camera and know that I am not qualified on that machine. 

So we roll on into the night.  And if the website suffers from a dearth of photos of central California highway in the pitch black, well, sue me.

Comments

[Inanna]

Oh,you poor man....*L* For Goddess's sake, don't touch that camera! You will not be thanked for it..

[Zeus]

Hey, nice to see you. Sorry for the long blog delay. Thanks for hanging in:)

[Matt Cooper]

Nope, I disagree. The photo not taken is gone forever. As they say on my favorite show of the moment, 30 Rock, 'nut up!'

I never heard anything about that trip. Sounds like fun.