I borrowed a copy of Roger-Pol Droit’s Astonish Yourself (you may have remembered my previous comments on this book), and I’ve been having a bit of fun with this book. I’ve been opening up the book every day at breakfast to some random experiment and trying to find some time during the day to give it a whirl.

Today’s was #28: Look at People from a Moving Car…

While I keep waiting for some deep, life-changing enlightenment to appear at the conclusion of each of these experiments, I think I’m just going to settle for the more predictable result of a “random series of thoughts that end up on my web page.”

Anyway, for those of you without a copy, this experiment was basically to have somebody drive you around while you “people watch.” Now watching people is one of my favorite illicit pastimes, and often find myself doing just that while I’m a passenger in a car… but I’m normally not planning it.

First came the initial guilty, but entertaining phase. You know, judging people. Sniggering at the hair-plugs driving the sports cars and the sixteen year old stud, driving his mother’s car… compensating by playing some rap at high volumes.

Next came the follow-through. You know, trying to guess where each person is going, and what their life before and after the drive is like. Some are easy; like the lady driving the minivan with a herd of children wearing the same clothes, must be going to a soccer game. Others are more thought-provoking, like the elderly gentleman driving the Suzuki Sidekick with a teenage girl.

Finally comes the mental wander-off. You know, like what you often reading on my web site. It all started by pretending the car wasn’t there, and I was flying down the road on my own. As if I were a ghost.

I always thought that when I die, I want to be a phantom tourist and go see all the sites I missed. First stop, the Egyptian pyramids! I think I learned enough from my ninth-grade geography class to find my way. But it would be fine if I got distracted or lost. It’s not that I’m under any time at that point.

Of course, what is the point in seeing all of these sites if you can’t talk to someone about them afterward. It would be like reading a book with 3D pictures. Sheer novelty at first, but quickly ripening into boredom.

But why do we assume that ghosts can see but not feel. You’d think that if ghosts had any of the five senses, it would be touch first. Sure, we probably identify our egos and our self-perception more from our eyes than any of our other senses, and we just project that self onto our future ghostly selves.

It would be ghastly fun to learn how to tip over pictures and stuff and come back and haunt your friends. They have to be expecting it. Yeah, I can see a game out of this one.

But what’s with all of my death thoughts of late? Is it just my form of mid-life hair-plugs? I snap back from my passenger day-dreaming to notice that someone is staring at me from another car. And he has this smirk on his face. Cheaky people watcher.