I'm sitting here 12 stories up looking out upon the expanse of traffic and concrete that is Dallas, Texas, a place undistinguished by anything save its proximity to Arlington, a place of no distinction either save the presence of the Texas Rangers. I'm here to attend a football game, of all things. LSU-Oregon. In a monstrous stadium that cost a billion dollars to build. The Jerrydome, after the owner of the Dallas Cowboys NFL team. Jerry Jones.
I cannot remember the last time I saw a football game live either. In fact, from what I understand, most of the people in the stadium today will not really see the game live either, but will instead be watching events on the field on the ginormous HD TV screens that stretch almost the entire length of the field on both sides. Amazing.
It's an amazing age we live in, period. I am typing this on a device upon which I watched a movie late last night and read the news this morning, upon which I will post this bit of writing to a network available to literally billions of people all over the world. Everything this device does, it does through the air. I have often thought how one would attempt to explain these things to say an Alexander Stephens, who died in 1883. Think of all the prior knowledge he would have to possess to even begin to try and grasp it.
And yet a civilization that can produce such wonders cannot learn to exist without constant war, cannot manage to produce a reasonable standard of existence for millions of it's people, cannot conquer its raging fears of terrorists behind every tree, a society that feeds the rich and starves the hungry. Sorry. Maybe this multiple-storied glass colossus out the window and the Galleria shopping district nearby have momentarily distracted me from concentrating on what's really important: the commencement of college football and the race to be #1.
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