Janet Ray Memorial Series: The Anti-Josh Foor City

I was in Vegas this past weekend with my dad and my brother. Every couple years we try to go on a mancation and my dad was going there anyways for a work conference so we tagged along. The main attraction was this speedway my dad found outside of the city where one can drive Ferraris, Lamborghini’s, etc. It was going to be a quick trip, fly in Friday morning, fly out really early Sunday morning.

The day we were at the track was a cool 60 degrees and crystal clear. The sun was begging it’s long, desert setting routin

This is my friend, Signori Ferrari 458 Italia. I drove him.

e, the same routine in which cowboys for years would ride off.  I wish I had to words to fully do justice to the experience. I drove a the Nissan Skyline GTR that does 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. It was pretty incredible to accelerate out of turns at 60 mph and hit 120 in the 3 seconds before the next turn. I also drove a Ferrari 458 Italia. It has 650 horsepower and perfectly engineered to do everything perfectly. I could take turns at 70 mph and the car would yawn at me.

So that part was great. It was also great to spend time with my Dad and brother. They got sick and, well, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but once they recovered it we had a good time analyzing things together.

Vegas however is the Anti-Josh Foor city. I would even go so far to say it is the Anti-Everybody city, depending on how you look at it. Sure some people like it, but the whole city is set up to rob you of satisfaction while selling you lies of quick money, sexual fulfillment, and status. Everything about it is designed to incite discontentment and insecurities that make you want to spend money. Benj my brother said on the last night after we had watched the Broncos massacre, that he didn’t even want to leave the room again because there’s no way to walk out there with out losing money – either on over priced food or drink or gaudy show, or gambling.

Everything is pretense there. It’s image, it’s the perception of beauty or wealth or happiness, nothing is actually real. And the marketing is so intense that people almost seem to abdicate their ability to think for themselves. Everything and everyone says that a show is awesome. They go to see it and they saw it is awesome because everyone else said it was awesome. We went and saw a Cirque Du Solei show that had some cool parts but was mostly created so that there was something to do.

This is the most recently in a series of experiences that make me really depressed. Shallowness and examples of our societies bent on robbing us satisfaction really get me down. This past New Year’s, I started a new tradition of ducking out of the party around 11 or so and bringing in the new year with some reflection, prayer, and looking forward. I decided to do this because the year before I brought in the New Year making small talk and watching the Jonas Brothers and other Disney Channel pop stars perform in between Ryan Seacrest and a post-stroke Dick Clark making small talk about nothing. That’s not how I want to bring in another year of my life. I don’t think it makes me a curmudgeon to want meaning and to be around things that have value and meaning.

This was another thought I had standing in line at my grandma’s wake. Meaning is not found just about everything pop culture values. Money, image, beauty, youth, coolness, edginess – all this stuff is shadows and dust. The gospel, family, serving people, death, faithfulness in love over decades, this is diamonds and gold. My grandma didn’t concern herself with coolness or style or whether or not something was edgy or unique. She just loved her Jesus, family, her church, the world. She just enjoyed what she could and served as much as she could and she died with her granddaughter holding her hand and left a massive legacy.  Love is watching someone die, to quote the great philosopher Ben Gibbard.  It’s not some guy coming along and loving how crazy a girl is, Katherine Heigel.

Another DC photo. The artist calls it "Bench full O Family"

I guess this is just a part of growing up. All the things I thought were lame and boring turn out to be the source of meaning. And all the the things I thought were cool and exciting and “cutting” edge turn out to be 100% worthless. Pop music, fashion, coolness, cars – these things are hamster wheels for unimaginative people. Sure some of this stuff can be redeemed and used for better purposes but let’s deal with majorities. For every person who is using something like this for better purposes there are 10,000 that are just chasing the wind.

If I sound ranty or pointed it’s because I am writing mostly to myself. I can often lie to myself in my head, but when I write, I see things more clearly. Even I know alot of this stuff, I still find myself getting depressed because I’m cool or rich or fashionable. Which is exactly what the marketing industry wants. So this is mostly me writing to remind myself of reality. Also, next time you are down or emo, take a moment and see what is behind it. You might find that you are sad because you are not as cool or beautiful or living as glamorous of a life as society tells you should. Fight for contentment in Christ because that is the source of true satisfaction.

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~ by jfoor on January 19, 2012.