I loved Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam, the story of Adrian Cronauer, a DJ for armed forces radio during the Vietnam War. Sadly, Cronauer died last week.
In one scene Williams is asked to read the weather report. In only the way Williams could do it, he had me in stitches when he shouted, “it’s hot, damn hot.”
Just the other day I was having coffee with a friend who said he went on youtube.com and had downloaded an app that for twelve hours plays the sounds of a box fans. He said it is the best sleep therapy he has ever found. It brought him back to his boyhood days of sleeping to the whir of a box fan. I told him about the football dorm in college that wasn’t air conditioned. I slept to the sound of a box fan every August for four years. My friend rightfully commented that it being a football dorm in August it was not just the sleep that was unbearable but the smells.
So why the reminiscing about the heat. 109 degree temperatures in Dallas last weekend my son suffered through last weekend is one reason. Another is how mobile our society has become. We go north in the summer and south in the winter despite central heat and air almost everywhere. To a large extent humankind has learned to control our comfort, but hasn’t had the will to comfort neighbors who may not live in the comfort of an air-conditioned home and three square meals on our tables.
Maybe the environmental conditioning and mobility so many enjoy has desensitized us. What do you think?
No question about it, Webb. As a society, we have failed miserably. Income inequality that has created the haves and have nots. And, the current political environment has created such divides with increased or, at least, more exposed racism and tribalism. Love your neighbor as yourself has been forgotten.
Thanks Bill. We need a good setting of priorities. W.