Degrees of Comparison
Asked, "what are you going to be when you grow up?" my son responded, "I don't know yet." His answer was firm, accurate and final and he continued his homework seemingly without another thought to the question and more interested in looking up the defintion of the words "biophobia, biophile and biophilia," which was assigned by his new classroom teacher on the first day of returning to school after the summer holidays. I shuddered as memories of my childhood when I was always asked that question--seemed like on a regular basis--came flooding back.
I recalled that if I was around my parents especially my mother when asked that question, I would grow anxious and felt hard pressed to answer with some kind of worthwhile job description or professional title and would say something like: "I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up," for the look she eyed me with before I would answer was one which said, "you better say something sensible/worthwile (or else...)"
These days the questions most asked of me is "where are you from? what do you do?" and of course I provide the typical small talk answer describing location and job title. Speaking of which, I read somewhere that the next most interesting question along these lines is usually "where are you going?" I agree it is an interesting question but for me, this would take sometime (maybe a lifetime)to explain.
Now how about this question: "where were you and what were you doing on 9/11/01?" Hmm...My personal answer to this is something I doubt I'll ever forget for the rest of my life. Perhaps this quote from Great Expectations summarizes it best: "That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."{ Chapter 9 }
Don't know why but Dickens' opening in { A Tale Of Two Cities }also comes to mind whenever I reflect upon the day of September 11, 2001..."It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
