I was flipping through an old sketchbook this weekend and I saw a sketch I did of this weird couple I met at Logan Airport in Boston.
I was at the currency exchange counter turning dollars to pounds. The couple were behind me in line. The man asked me where I was going and I told him London. He told me he was from Georgia, the state not the country, and he and his wife were on their way to France. Then he made a comment about the exchange rate being unfair, at the time, April 2008, the pound was trading for roughly two dollars. I forgot what I said to him but it was something like, 'Yeah I know we're getting screwed'.
He said, 'Hell of a system huh! Doesn't make any sense to me.'
I nodded and said, 'Yeah it's complicated. I don't understand exchange rates either. They seem arbitrary to me.'
Then he turned the conversation into really strange territory. He continued with, 'Well you know some people will tell you that the Antichrist is going to be a person. The Antichrist ain't gonna be no person! It's gonna be a system!' He turned to his wife, 'Ain't that right, baby?'
She responded with total conviction, 'That's right! It's a system!'.
I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know if that was insightful or totally stupid. If they were using Antichrist as a metaphor for really bad shit that we will inflict on ourselves then I might agree with them, but I got the impression that they meant Antichrist in the literal Book of Revelations - Judgement Day - 7 Headed Beast - Whore of Babylon sense.
I didn't want to venture down crazy lane, so I just scooped up my pounds from the little aluminum bowl that the clerk just pushed them into from the other side of the bullet proof glass and wished them a nice vacation.
2 comments:
They may be on to something there.
Wait, I meant to say, "They may be on something there." As in, HIGH on something! Woo!!! Gimme that ol' time religion, gimme that ol' time religion!!!
I wonder what they meant by that. Kinda ominous. If you buy into that story, the whole Revelations, thing, it makes sense somehow that Satan's emissary on Earth would be some kind of faceless network that binds and traps the unsuspecting, and doomed, masses. I mean, if the Antichrist were just some dude, we could say, "Oh, that dude is evil. I want nothing to do with him." But, if the Antichrist--"That which is opposed to Christ" were to take the form of, say, the internet, THEN we'd be in trouble. Boy howdy!
Anyway, funny story and drawing.
I think they are on to something that's why I paused and was stupefied for a second. From my experience the things that really end up making the world so crappy are the unintended consequences of our actions. We could be building our own prison right now and not even realizing it!
I just found it funny that I had this moment of clarity at an airport thanks to a crazy man wearing an Atlanta Falcons sweatshirt and a woman with Lee press-on nails and a beehive hairdo.
Post a Comment