Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

When I first heard that Conan O'Brien was to take over the Tonight Show, I thought our culture was having one of its better moments. The highest quality entertainment isn't always the most popular. This is ok, especially with technology easing access to even the most obscure movie, song, or novel. But I still thought it was nifty that Conan would be given the top late night spot after so many years of the popular, yet tragically unfunny Leno.

I finally got around to watching the Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, the documentary about Conan's comedy tour shortly after he left the Tonight Show. Through candid interviews and fly-on-the-wall filming, we see a fuller picture of Conan than I've ever seen before. Even in a previous hour long interview, he almost only was in comedy mode. In the documentary we see someone struggling with anger and a sense of loss. He often uses comedy to deal with it, but he is just as often simply despondent.

I was fascinated to see him get sick of greeting all his fans. He tries his best to be pleasant, but he is clearly exhausted and eventually instructs his people to limit access. In another scene, we see a real test of his personality. A fan asks for special help in ensuring that he can get into the show. The problem is that the fan very casually uses an antisemitic slur when making the request. Conan is shocked and flustered, and points out that they will need his Jewish producer's help. He asks them to promise to never use the slur again. Yet, I wonder if he should half helped them at all. But I can imagine who terrible it would be if Conan didn't flinch.

Nature

I understand finding a certain closeness with nature is important to a lot of people. There is a sense of peace and purity available in nature and people seem to manage to derive all sorts of spiritual feelings from this. Connectedness with nature seems to fit with whatever spiritual system at hand, even if it is an awkward christian admiration of god's alleged creations. I like to come at it with a forced ignorance of established religious thinking and appreciate the basic connection I have to the natural world, being an animal composed of basic elements. I realize that I've caught some Emersonianism here as I find meaning in my personal experience with nature.

But I've also grown skeptical of many people's actual exercise of connecting with nature. I feel like a large minority of nature lovers in my region either have Lyme Disease or are at serious risk of it. There is no alternative to thoroughly examining your whole body for ticks after being in the woods and it is a hassle. The risk and all the effort required to avoid infection take a fair amount of pleasure out of going into the woods.

And I never feel more connected with the natural world than when my cat is sitting on my lap purring. No matter how much one loves nature, almost every species' survival depends on its instinct to flee when a human gets anywhere near it. I find it hard to feel deeply connected to nature when no animal wants to be anywhere near me. A bond with a pet is a very real connection with nature where a human can develop a closeness with another species.

I also understand that many feel an affection for the natural world because much of the man-made world is unpleasant. My response to the hideousness of much of the built environment is to be drawn to a better built environment. In that sense, I appreciate quality places, natural and man made, with an open preference for the man made. And my favorite natural environment is the ocean. Perhaps this is because the edge between a man-made environment and the naturalness of the ocean is always clear. Encroachment into the woods is inevitable, but the coastal city must end at the ocean.