Dearest Rachel -
There was another thing that came to mind for a topic to discuss with you yesterday morning as I was working out, but since I had the actual events of the day (and the attitude associated with them) to describe to you already, I set it aside for the time. But since Saturdays keep me busy with multiple activities that are pretty much the same from week to week (and therefore, don't bear much repeating), I might as well tell you about it now, and unpack my thoughts about it all.
***
It should probably come as no surprise to you that, at several points along the wall, the fitness room has several televisions mounted from the ceiling. Bad enough to have to be there in the first place; worse yet to not have some form of distraction from the monotony of the repetitive exercise you're performing while you're there.
To be sure, most of what they show isn't of any interest to me. We'd long since given up watching television, as you'll remember, apart from the few shows that were much easier accessed (in various ways) online. The news, in particular, was of little interest; again, online sources were often faster, and as time has gone by, they've proven to be infinitely more reliable.
But it was what was on, and it's ever-changing scenes and graphics were better able to hold my interest than the empty parkland outside the window. So, as I plodded along on the treadmill, I would occasionally glance up and see what was playing, whether or not, I really wanted to.
Most of the things that caught my attention were the advertisements, in fact. Which is probably by design; if anyone really wants the viewers, attention, it's the advertisers. One in particular that latched onto me, was an ad for one of those all-inclusive resorts. It showed scenes of a couple clutching onto each other under a waterfall, paddle boarding over the ocean, that sort of thing.
It looked like the sort of place that really would've appealed to you; and the fact that I'm into travel might have suggested the same for me. But the visuals gave the impression that it was meant almost specifically for couples. I am no longer part of the demographic that they wish to reach. And, given the couples' age, even if I were to find Megumi, I probably still wouldn't be considered part of their target demographic.
This gnawed at me then, and still bothers me now, which is why I'm writing you about it.
***
In a certain sense, I should really be used to this by now. Our generation is a relatively small one, and always has been, surrounded as we are by the giant cohorts of baby boomers (you might remember that, prior to Douglas Coupland and his novel giving us the name we're now known by, we were referred to as "baby busters," because the post-war "baby boom" had ended prior to our arrival, thanks to such things as women's liberation and birth control) and millennials. As such, advertisers, who are trying to sell the most products to the most people, will aim at where the people are – which is not us, has never been us, and will never be us. We're overlooked, which has at least allowed us to develop our own tastes, mostly independent of the manufactured market.
To be fair, there's something nice about being allowed to develop on our own, without the pressure of such outside influences. Indeed, it can be a sort of perverse pride about the situation; we are not a target market to be manipulated and sold a bill of goods to. Ironically, that slogan, "I am not a target market," would probably make for a decent T-shirt slogan, if I could just figure out how to properly design and promote it.
But even as we might be proud to never be or have been the target of such influences, there are times when we feel like we are missing out – or have missed out; I look at this ad, and wonder if it's not something I'm too old for, or if it's just the lack of someone to share it with, and to go back to the hotel after doing this or that activity, and do… 'this or that' with. Would it be something we could have enjoyed, even at our age, or has time just passed us by?
***
Then again, if it has, there are other options. We're being told that humanity is a blight on the planet these days, and it would be so much better off if there were fewer of us to contaminate it. Granted, I'd buy into such a perspective more if those preaching it would make for the exits as they berated the rest of us – leading by example, and all that, don't you know – but there have been moments when I get tired enough of it all that I might consider something else…
I hear euthanasia tourism is starting to become a thing; first, there was Switzerland, now it's right across the northern border. Indeed, it's gotten to the point where the free healthcare they tout in the Great White North tends to lean on their brand new MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) program, complete with at least one story of it being recommended to an individual seeking help in overcoming her suicidal thoughts. I mean, that would do it, but not in the way she was probably hoping. But hey, population control!
On a less passive note, one of the objections I have to even these all-inclusive joints is that you're advised not to leave the resort grounds, because everything around you outside is so dangerous. Why not make that danger the whole point of the visit? You could advertise euthanasia tourism to adrenaline junkies by letting them out into the wider neighborhood. And why stop there? Why settle for a meaningless death, when you could go out for a cause and become a martyr? A member of the rainbow community could travel to the Middle East, for instance, and discover why multibillion-dollar corporations don't celebrate Pride Month in that region. If they think of themselves as a horribly oppressed minority here in the West, they could see how much worse it could be in other, more supposedly enlightened places. On the other side of the coin, a conservative could put on a red baseball cap and walk around in the middle of Portland, Oregon; now that would be euthanasia, indeed! You'd have to deal with blunt force trauma, rather than quicker, cleaner bullets (since Antifa doesn't use guns), but you have to take what you can get. Still – assuming what happens to you gets coverage, which isn't guaranteed – your point is made, and it's probably as certain a result as trying to be a missionary to the Sentinelese.
***
These are the sorts of things that pass through my mind upon watching a single ad for a vacation resort. I know it got a little dark there by the end, but sometimes I have to let this sort of thing out. If it were the two of this talking it over, it probably would have been a bit more lighthearted.
That being said, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck; I'm going to need it.
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