I was behind a Ford truck that was being driven by a virgin. I know this because the truck displayed the following stickers: "JEDI ACADEMY GRADUATE", a picture of a Clone Trooper helmet, a picture of a Stormtrooper helmet, a picture of a Darth Vader helmet, and one that said "MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU...ALWAYS". There was also a license plate frame that read "The Force is strong in this one". Oh, and the license plate itself read "DRTHRON". (Darth Ron!)
Darth Ron would no doubt find my lack of faith disturbing.
As I'm wont to do while driving, I drifted off into a meditative, fugue-like state. I thought of our current national discord, and how we can come together as a people. Then it came to me. Perhaps Islam got it right. Perhaps there's something to the idea of collectively looking towards Mecca and praying, five times a day, every day. In those moments, people around the world unite and in a sense become one in mind, heart, and soul. As Americans, we scoff at the idea of understanding those that our leaders claim are out to destroy us. But there must be something to be learned from this. Billions of people, scattered across the globe, living disparate lives - Canada, England, Indonesia, and yes, even here in the U.S. - and yet in a sense as a people they're never truly apart. There must be some comfort, some strength, in knowing that as you pray, at that exact moment, thousands are doing the exact same thing. We could use something like that here. So this: once a day, all of us will stop whatever it we're doing. We'll gather in conference rooms or town squares or strip mall food courts or football stadium parking lots, anywhere where speakers and soundsystems can be found. And at a given time, synchronized so that all Americans are doing this as one, a song will play. That song will be Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time" (which is even cooler in spaaaaaaaaace) and together we shall all rock out to it and play air guitar en masse, millions of Americans fret-boarding like Tom Scholz in glorious united...er, unison, because if there are two things that Americans know how to do, it's play air guitar, and go fly fishing, but who really gives a shit about fly fishing?
