Into Anything Or Into Nothing

    I was asked what I was into when I was a younger, and my reply was, "How much younger? Twenty years ago? Forty years ago? Fifty?"

   The woman who posed the question paused briefly and said, "When you were in your late teens, early twenties, what were you into at that time?"

   Without hesitation I flatly stated "Life".

   "I was into living my life to the fullest. I went out dancing a lot, because I really liked dancing and I liked music. I also was into art and literature - dove headfirst into Kerouac after reading On The Road, but also Philip Roth, and Chandler, and Vonnegut, and a whole bunch of Sci-Fi authors like Zelazny, Clarke, Bradbury, Jose-Farmer, and a ton of others. I think I read just about any book that I could get my hands on." 

   "What about your education? Did you go to college? What did you study?"

   "You know, I tried college several times, but ultimately it became too difficult for me to both earn a living and attend college. Also, there was the part where I just didn't possess enough self-discipline or an adequate attention span, one or the other, or maybe it was both, to pursue any particular subject for too long. I studied Architecture, History, English, and a few other interests - but I never put together a specific curriculum, never climbed over that wall."

   "Really? You come across as a fairly well-educated person. Very worldly, too."

   "Thank you, appreciate that. I chalk that up to a lack of a television in the household when I was a kid, and the resultant addiction to reading that I developed."

    She looked at my face as if trying to judge whether I was being truthful about my background and then asked, "So what are you into now?"

   "Pretty much the same things, except not so much with the dancing. Can't think of the last time I went out dancing."