09 November 2007

The Most Ridiculous LA Moment Ever


So I’m sitting down to lunch with Matt Miller, Youth Venture’s rockstar extraordinaire, at a little sidewalk café in West Hollywood when – at the table next to us – a woman plops down with her dog. They’re clearly on a date. I’m perusing the menu, Matt is perusing the menu, the woman next to us is perusing the menu, the dog is panting. I order, Matt orders, the woman orders, the dog is yapping. I get my food, Matt gets his food, the woman gets her food and the dog…gets a bottle of Evian poured into a restaurant-supplied dog dish!


Homeless people are cruising the streets right in front of the restaurant, 25% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to clean water and this dog’s chugging down a bottle of France’s finest. This was my first post-trip experience when I couldn’t help but wonder, “why does the world make absolutely no sense?” I was born in the US inside arbitrary borders (lines) that were drawn by people hundreds of years ago and because of this randomness my life equates to sunshine, a college degree, patio restaurants and Evian-drinking canines. Person X was born in India inside arbitrary borders (lines) that were drawn by [western] people dozens of years ago and because of this randomness his or her life equates to monsoon rains, limited access to education, and quite possibly, extreme poverty. Does this arbitrary nature make sense to anyone? Why, because I was born in this “box,” should I be entitled to so much while someone else, in an entirely different box, has so little? I don’t get it.

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Kyle Taylor

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