The rides.

Has anyone ever gone on a "Tower of Terror" or an "Aerosmith rock roller coaster"?? I did, at the famous Disney World MGM studios last week. I was there on business for the annual "sales kickoff" in Orlando, Florida. As part of the IP legal team, we had a break out session, but took part in the huge events at night. So I actually went on a Star Wars ride, watched a 3D movie starring the Muppets, entered the Tower of Terror elevator drop, drop again, and drop again and cautiously closed my eyes while I took a ride on the Aerosmith roller coaster. Hint, closing your eyes during a turn twisty ride is NOT good for the balance. At the end of the night, I was NOT pleased.

I kept on asking my friends and colleauges there, why do we as Americans create this type of self-contrived thrill contraptions...what is it about US that can build, spend tons of money and forget about the world at large, creating menu choices of an array of rides, thrills and terror?

I got some interesting responses,
1) the Americans are bored;
2) We have "so little time" to vacation so it is important to escape!
3) "Why not??"
4) silence

I am not sure if there is one answer, though I suspect it has to do with our consumption attitude and ability to provide a supply a demand for fun unlike anywhere else. I do not want to judge this at all, and frankly I heard TONS of people enjoy themselves, laugh like crazy and just relaxed with the hazy reality that set in. I did feel that the "Disney World" experience is similar to living through a spectactular Broadway musical all day and night. Watching a show...being part of the show and never leaving the audience. I guess this is what the place is about.

One day, I may bring Isabella and Alec to Disney World so Pieter and I can introduce them to the vast playground. I cannot see spending more than a few days, but experiencing how our culture relates to the phenomenon of vacation is at the very least highly intriguing. But only after I show them my world...

We will have to see NY (sooner than later as we are planning a trip to Central Park this spring), Paris, France, the place I adore ever since I studied in France in 1989, we will definitely visit family and all our 'gezellig' places in Holland (next summer if all goes well), my family's heritage in Pakistan (Pieter and I are aiming for within the next 2-3 years), the Bahá'í Houses of Worship (the Lotus temple in New Dehli, India is on the top of our list after the one in Chicago) and Haifa, at the Bahá'í world center, where Pieter and I went for Pilgrimage back in 97. That place had the greatest ride of all, a spiritual one, but everlasting and definitely beyond this world.