The Animate Machine

One of the staff - Pepe with his master's degree and working on his doctorate - on our recent Antarctica trip came up to SuperK and me at the airport and told us how much he enjoyed our company.  This guy gave a lecture that we found so interesting that we corralled him after his talk to discuss the subject in greater detail.  We did it because we were interested in the topic but we also did it because everyone likes to be recognized, to be seen, to feel like what they were trying to say was heard.  We made it a point to do this after every lecture we attended - whether we found the lecture interesting and informative or not - and we were surprised at how often the presenter was left alone at the podium at the end, shuffling papers, while the attendees just stood up and walked out, talking among themselves about this and that - themselves, probably.  Even if I didn't love the lecture I could find something to relate to or some fact that was new and surprising to me.  Some thing that I could talk to the lecturer about.  I felt like I was saying: "Good job.  I heard you."

Joyous:  Extremely happy; extreme, exuberant, deep happiness.    

Another guy - Roddy with his two master's degrees and twenty years experience working as an anthropologist in the ghettos of South Africa - so intrigued SuperK and me that we talked to him on a number of occasions.  This is the animist guy, the guy who said: "Yes!  We need more animists!" when I told him I was thinking of converting to animism even though I don't really know what that means.  I'd be a Christian Animist.  I guess animism is an ancient belief system that postulates that  the rocks in my cactus garden talk to the plants while my dead ancestors whirl around miasmatically in the moonlight.  What's not to like?  I'm a big fan of rocks and cacti and departed ancestors and I really love a good beam of moonlight.  When we parted for the last time he said that he really appreciated our joyousness.    

And . . . the head of security for the ship - the Brit David - approached us as we were waiting to de-boat.  His staff was responsible for making sure only passengers got back on the ship when we were in port and also - more importantly, I think - making sure that everyone who got off the boat got back on the boat.  It wouldn't be great marketing to leave a guest on an ice floe somewhere and sail blithely off.  I always tried to say something cheerful or silly when I was getting off the ship and when I was returning, calling the staff by name, bitching about freezing my skinny ass off, taking shit with self-deprecation when I lost my ID three times - three times! Not once or even twice but three times! - and even encouraging the staff to pile on.  Just to be joyous.  I think most people looked at the security staff as animate machines.  I think most people would have been happy scanning their IDs into a machine.  David thanked us for this.  I hope it made a difference to the security staff to have someone treat them like real people; real people who are away from their families and their homes for four months at a crack.  That can't be easy.  Frankly, these people were much more interesting to me than the self-satisfied guests wallowing in their vaguely discontented ennui.

The Animate Machine would be an excellent name for a heavy metal band.