My Parallel Universe

I seem to live in a parallel universe.

I was at a large picnic with friends yesterday. There was great food, good music, lots of people, many new faces, some old friends. But the discussions that I listened to or tried to join in convinced me that I live in a parallel universe that has little intersection with the one they live in.

The women spoke about bizarre alternative medicine things like "energetic" bracelets that exchange the "bad" ions to make you feel good, yoga, vacation, Waldorf schools, and their kids. The men spoke of their new toys: sailboats, cameras, grills, cars.

Oh, I spoke of cars, too, complaining of the difficulty of obtaining a new one. A Polish friend laughed at me - "You Germans, always make a project out of everything! Just buy one, and if you don't like it, sell it again!". She does have a point there.

But things like post-privacy, Leistungsschutzrecht, ACTA, the Euro, the sad state of education in Germany, etc. etc. were just not a topic. Oh, I tried a few times, but there were no takers on such a discussion. I went down to the lake for a swim, a discussion with two young boys about making grass whistles, and some reading on a topic from my universe.

Maybe I just need to get me one of those bracelet do-hickeys and get my mind off of all those serious topics.