Sir Realities

It's Monday, President's Day, the Federal Government has declared a legal holiday and I have to work.

Thus it's ever been on these Faux-Holidays. And these days always take on a surreal feeling as the city feels not like a weekend but not like a workday either. And of course the building cafe is closed interrupting my morning ritual of buying their coffee and flavored water to go with my oatmeal.

Add on top of that a very un-February like day of 65 degree temps and an unsettled feeling in the air; add a dash of not having slept well the past two nights and what you get is a feeling that the world just isn't right. Like you're viewing everything through a lens of surreality.

Days like today remind you what creatures of habit we are; that if even the most trivial and banal matters of routine are interrupted how out of whack things seem. And such is predictability is a hallmark of modern, middle-class life. We not only know where our next meal is coming from, we know how it will taste and how much it will cost.

This is one reason why September 11 left such a scar on our psyche. The attacks threw the world off its predictable pattern. Airplanes weren't supposed to be weapons. You didn't get up to go to a normal workday only to be killed with thousands of your fellow co-workers. Was the Subway safe? Where would a plane crash next? Would the banks be open tomorrow? You literally didn't know what was going to happen next.

I'll take minor surreal days like this faux-holiday to remind me how safe and predictable my life is. And take a moment to be thankful for it and offer a hope that such it will ever be.