This is your brain on...

What could be more perfect on a pleasant Monday evening in Toronto than listening to the noodlings of a masked, KFC bucket-wearing guitar virtuoso? While the sweet strains of Colma settle my eardrums, my thoughts focused on what was supposedly uttered by Maurice Ravel when asked what he was doing on a balcony: J’attends.

Much like Vladimir and Estragon were hanging around for some mysterious entity, so are our lives structured around waiting. The French composer was waiting for death, though our periods of lingering aren’t quite as morbid. Waiting for the new pope to be announced; waiting for revelations of sponsorship scandals; waiting for the party poopers to leave the room so the real fun begins.

Still, we hang around for the next station on the road of life, as each event brings us one step closer to the ultimate goal in life – absolute contentment. Hedonistic perhaps, but it sure beats a lifetime of what-ifs and wishful thinking.