Lesson #5
“Sometimes I become spellbound in the middle of Wal-Mart.”
OR
Maybe the world really is worth all this trouble.
God knows how many times most of us have awakened one morning wondering why we even had to bother with any of it anymore.
A bad mood and/or extended depression is like that; it just infects every corner of your life, from the way you act and speak and dress, but most importantly the manner in which you see things.
Even when one tiny thing upsets us, it generally makes everything seem positively awful; when that happens, we fester in the land of melancholia for a month or three until something comes along to perk us up (I find a good grade on a paper or watching my favourite movie does the trick for me).
I guess the point of this whole thing is, when we are down or depressed, we shouldn’t have to go to all that much trouble to start feeling good again.
Have you ever just been walking around one day, just a regular day, and for one second just stop dead in your tracks and looked around you…physically looked all around you? Just take a look at the world outside, the structure of it, the trees or the buildings.
What about the computer you use fairly frequently? Doesn’t the fact that not even a mere 25 years ago things like personal computers were barely figments of some techie’s imagination just blow your mind?
Things have progressed so rapidly in recent years. Think about it. Not even 300 years ago the United States was barely a mound of dirt lying in the middle of the ocean, and now it’s one of the most advanced countries in the world.
When Lestat said that he sometimes becomes spellbound in the middle of Wal-Mart, it’s not because of the great prices.
He’s talking about how far things have come in a relatively short period of time. We as mortals might not be able to completely comprehend something like that, but for an immortal vampire, just thinking about how much things have changed since you were a boy in 18th century France must be a simply mind-blowing experience.
The crux of Lestat’s statement is this:
When you think about how far things have come, or even if you just concentrate a bit on physical nature itself, about how something totally natural can be so utterly complex, it’s very hard to keep thinking that the world is utterly worthless.
Immortality holds no real joy for humans (aside from bypassing the fear of death) other than to have the opportunity to truly enjoy all the world has to offer. In the movie version of Interview With the Vampire, there’s a part where Lestat says to Louis, “There’s nothing in this world now that doesn’t hold some”, and Louis adds “fascination.” I think that statement is more true than any of us could ever imagine.
To make a long story short, next time you’re a little down in the dumps, take a jaunt over to your local Wal-Mart, look at all the new fangled gadgets, just stare at the pure structure and order of things, and you try telling me that this world just isn’t worth it.
You might want to stick around if for no other reason than to see just how far we’ve come in another 50 years.