I found my passport last night. I wasn’t looking for it. Rifling through drawers and things, I was waiting with hungry bird-beak scissors, trying to find an old copy of Hi-Fructose magazine to butcher and put on my walls. We recently talked about my walls. But there was my passport instead, just sitting all stiff and patriotic in a hidden place in my den. It didn’t go on the wall. I decided not to cut it up with my bird-beak scissors.
I turned on a floor lamp and made a circle of white on my legs. I opened the passport. And inside was me from two years ago – the picture wasn’t too, too bad. And inside was France. And inside was the rest of the world. And possibilities and past. And lots of Americana funneled into quote and watermark.
I had a moment in my white circle of floor lamp where my heart filled up with oatmeal mush, and I silently pondered the gravity of my transforming worldview on this, the first night living solo in my house, as the symbolism of travel and world and identity and blank pages all converged so perfectly for 15 seconds there with my little blue passporty personage. And then I cut up my magazine and watched RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Life goes on.
With the tumult that faces the planet on a daily basis, it’s easy to feel swallowed up in the big, black maw of the future. The future is a thing. Like a thing that lives under the bed and has bristles on its back. Daunting. Don’t watch the news.
But not everybody is hiding under the covers. With his book, The Coming Prosperity: How Entrepreneurs are Transforming the Global Economy, economist Phil Auerswald sees a future of innovation and opportunity – a brighter horizon, minimal sharp teeth, you won’t need a night light. Join him tomorrow, February 5th, as he presents his vision as part of the World Affairs Council Speaker Series at 6pm.
Currently working as an Economist at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, Phil Auerswald is no stranger to the constant shift of world affairs. A co-founder and co-editor of the MIT Press quarterly journal, Innovations, Auerswald spotlights entrepreneurial resolutions to the trials facing global markets today. His book, The Coming Prosperity, details this outlook, showing readers how the gloom and doom forecasted by many other leading thinkers is far more adventure than adversity.
Registration for the Speaker Series begins at 5pm, with Auerswald’s presentation and refreshments to follow starting at 6pm. Tickets are available for $15 each, or discounted at $10 a pop for WAC members.
Last night I slept well. Very well. I woke up before my alarm. I watched the sun rise. I saw the sky watercolor itself through all iterations of blue and into a winter-sun gray. I came to work. I drank too much coffee. Life is still going on. My passport is back in the drawer. The future is unknown, but that’s good. And good is good. I’m not really afraid to watch the news.
The World Affairs Council Speaker Series will be held at 620 South Third Street. For more information or to purchase tickets, (502) 561-5422.
Image: Courtesy of Amazon www.amazon.com
