The world’s had me down a bit lately. And I’ve been hearing from friends feeling the same (including one who woke up feeling alone next to a bag of potato chips). I sat in a park wrestling it in my mind. It was a green grass/ blue sky T-shirt kind of day in Geneva. An old guy stopped by to talk. After pleasantries he said the words you never want to here from a stranger, “I researched this a lot…” 

It implies some kind of unarguable scientific study but we all know it means he’s about to spout off some crackpot thing he “found” on the internet. “Found” being the key word… more like the algorithms and Joe Rogan-ish podcasts threw enough random things at the wall until one finally stuck for him. Continuing the theme of my trip I listened along rather than getting up and running away. 

He seemed like a good enough fellow outside of the above nonsense. He said from his perspective as an old man, the world is about to end one chapter and start another. He was feeling the hopelessness too. It hit me then that I saw some common ground for everyone. It’s this feeling that we are all being driven apart yet at the same time so many of us feel the same… or something like that. I needed to go sit down and hack out this inspiration on a keyboard before it slipped away. 

Heading up to my room a man brushed past me leaving the elevator. As the doors closed I realized he left something else, a raunchy fart. It was fishy and stale and it made my eyes water. I closed my mouth so I wouldn’t taste it. There was a thick radiating heat coming from a corner of the elevator. 

I stumbled out of the doors reeling from the smell. Taking a breath of fresh air the tension in my shoulders dropped and there was nothing I could do but laugh. And the laugh drove out the thread of the idea that moments ago had seemed so desperately important to write out. 

I decided to draw a giraffe farting into an elevator.