Or at least that what I’ve been accused of. I got an email on Thursday from a fellow who wrote me twice. The first one, written in response to one of my emailed journal entries, said this: “F**k you son of a botch I’m Travis Smith”
And the second one said this: “I’m going to alert aol if you don’t stop using my name my real name”
Now, I don’t know what AOL would do to me exactly—perhaps they have some Division of Unique Name Enforcement that I’m not aware of, who would come with thick leather gloves and encourage me to find a new name.
The fellow (I assume fellow, though I could be impersonating some oddly named teenage girl, I suppose) wrote me from an AOL address. He subscribed to my column about a month ago. And that’s all I know, except that he doesn’t like to curse in email, and he possibly doesn’t know how to spell bitch.
I wrote him back, but he hasn’t replied. I figure it arrived in his mail box; after all, people rarely block email sent by themselves.
Anyway, if you suddenly notice that your good friend Travis Smith is acting a little odd, you’ve probably got me confused with someone else, or someone else confused with me. Please contact the appropriate Division immediately for further instructions.
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)