Boston's "All Kinds"

Over the last ten years I have become civic-minded and have acquired a social consciousness. Once upon a time not too long ago but seemingly in another world, my worries were about grades, perhaps a boyfriend, and in some vague way, my future as an adult. For me as a person, a lot has changed since then.

One of the personal changes is this advent of social awareness. I have noticed it more recently with the local trials of Aaron Hernandez and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, especially Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Once upon a time I would have known about these kind of important events but not followed them with interest. At least for me, to some degree my mental involvement in these sorts of things is not particularly healthy psychologically. Still, I can't help myself; I am taking an interest in the real world. Having said all of that, as sad and even as scary some things can seem, there are times when a person just has to laugh.

Yesterday my boyfriend, Terry, and I were eating at a Five Guys restaurant. There's nothing like a pitifully unhealthy cheeseburger and some death-defying fries to bring the world's troubles more into perspective. As I am chomping away at some high calorie food and contemplating how much time on an elliptical I'll have to spend to burn it off, Terry calmly informs me that he has discovered a new talent. With my mouth stuffed with salted, deep-fried french fries, I give him an inquisitive look.

"Hi Katie, how's the food?" he inquires in this almost creepy, high pitched voice.

"Did you see that?" he then asks in his normal voice.

I swallow the glob of french fries then said, "See what?"

"I talked without moving my lips," Terry replies with a note of actual pride. "I am a ventriloquist."

For about five seconds I just stared at his grinning face. "What?" I mumbled.

"I can do ventriloquism," he responded. "I can talk without moving my lips. I can even do it in a couple of different voices."

There are all kinds of people in the world, and in Massachusetts. On one end of the spectrum there are murderers, terrorists, etc., then at the other end of the spectrum there are those who become exciting because they can talk without moving their lips. If the evils of the world seem to be closing in on you, one little-known antidote is to have dinner with an amateur ventriloquist. He won't rid the world of evil people, but he'll certainly make them seem farther way.