yes, it’s very hot here in nyc.
the heat index yesterday was 113, today’s supposed to be up around 115.
you walk outside and you do literally feel as if you’re stepping into a sauna
or a steamroom.
which led me to think of the irony regarding peoples responses to heat.
when people go on holiday/vacation they tend to go to places that are
either extremely hot(the tropics), or extremely cold(the mountains).
but yet when the weather in nyc(or any big city)becomes extremely hot
or extremely cold people are, by their own admission, kind of miserable.
it’s ironic, right?
people will pay thousands of dollars to experience foreign heat, but when
the heat visits them at home it makes them unhappy.
ok, i do understand that there’s context involved(i.e-the tropical heat usually involves
palm trees and sand and urban heat usually involves bus exhaust
and subway platforms), but it’s still kind of ironic.
kind of like the irony of crowds and lines.
if you stopped a relatively successful person and said, ‘i’ll give you $10 if you stand
in this crowd or wait on this line for an hour’ they’d say ‘no’.
but if you say to them: ‘there’s an overcrowded bar/nightclub/airport/etc, and you have
to spend a lot of money to stand on line and in crowds’ they’ll throw money at you and wait in terrible crowds and annoying lines voluntarily.
the next time you’re in a crowded, loud, hot, annoying place just think, ‘how much would i or any of these people demand to be paid to agree to stand in a crowded, loud, hot, annoying environment for work?’
the moral of the story: people will do their best to avoid heat and crowds and lines and extreme cold that cost nothing, but there’s no limit to what people will spend to subject themselves to heat and crowds and lines and extreme cold.
i’m going to go outside now and pretend that i’ve paid money to stand in the heat. that way i’ll enjoy it more.
moby