Stupid Questions

I was watching one of those "Global Disaster" shows on Discovery tonight, and how the east coast of the United States may be wiped out by the collapse of part of the La Palma island in the Canary's.

Anyway... Listening to the show, more than actually watching it, I was reminded of a person I went to school with. For the sake of his privacy, I will give him the name Dick... which is oddly what he is, and another version of his name.

This person was the odd member of the group I hung out with. We all belonged to cliques when we were in school... Nowadays they are considered more like gangs, and some schools try to prevent people from gathering too much.

We were a group of nerds... Pretty much all of us, except Dick, were pretty good at what we did. Most of our time that was not spent in class, was spent in the computer room working on programs... except Dick... who spent most of his time, looking back in retrospect, playing games and bothering us.

He used to have these ideas he would pursue us about, and ask us for our input on... and these had to be, quite possibly, the stupidest or most irrelevant ideas that one could possibly think of.

One that stands out to me the most was this work of cerebral artwork:

"Hey... if you looked up and saw a nuclear missile coming right at you, what would you do?"

OK... Let us look at the deep and troubling philosophical nature of this question... Alright, Bullshit, there it is. Lets look at the reality of the question in the hopes that Dick ever wanders into this site.

1. Even if you were lucky enough to happen to glance up and see the device approaching, then you would only have seconds to really think about anything before you became incinerated, or at the very least blinded... at which time the only thing you will be thinking is "Damn I wish I was dead."

2. Who Cares? You can think of what ever you wanted, but what good would it do? It reminds me of the poor whale that was created, along with the bowl of petunias, as a result of the Infinite Improbability drive over the planet Magrathea in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. You can think anything you want, and come up with what ever opinions you want, but but after a few moments, you will meet the same fate as the Whale and the petunias.

3. And finally... it's just the dumbest question you can ask and does not deserve an answer. If you could look up a Thesaurus listing for dumb questions like this, you might find the following:

a. What would you do if you saw the sun go Nova?
b. Where would you go if you had nowhere to go fast?
c. What happens to all the missing socks that disappear in the dryer?


In closing, I need to add the following.

Dick was, at one time, a good friend... but as times changed and the rest of the group grew up and moved on in our lives, he stayed in his world... not moving and not growing up or taking the responsibilities that life and age cast upon him. Because of this, and only because of his own short sightedness, did he lose those who were his friends.