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[美文欣赏]going straight and right[向前走，右转弯]

题记：生活有很多转弯，当你不能象左转的时候，就像右转吧，相信你会有惊喜的。放松心情，让我们一起右转弯吧！

(1) GO back 25 years: It's the summer of "Raiders [n.袭击者]of the Lost Ark [n. 箱子]". The movie is smashing great fun, directed by Spielberg, produced by Lucas, and a comic book on the big screen.
(2) I'm a college student spending the summer in San Jose, interning [n.实习]for a newspaper that for some bizarre [adj.奇异的]reason thinks I can pass for a journalist. When not working, I drive. The road is my hobby. When you're from the piney[adj.似松的, 松树般茂盛的] woods of the Deep South, there's something hallucinatory[adj.幻觉的, 引起幻觉的] about California, with its exaggerated landscape - everything jutting [v.(使)突出]and thrusting in three dimensions and the redwoods like something from a fairy tale.
(3) For many of us in the summer of 1981, money is something that affects the lives of other people. A lack of cash has clarifying qualities.® So many activities are unthinkable. A movie is a splurge[n.卖弄, 炫耀, ]. My main expense is gasoline. My main fear is that my car won't survive the summer. If I can get it to the end of August, I can sell it for scrap.®
(4) Because of a previous accident my car won't turn left. The simple solution would be to take the car to a garage and get it fixed, but the lack of money inspires a still simpler solution, which is to spend the summer going straight and right.
(5) It is the summer when a new thing called MTV will appear on cable. Scientists have recognized a new contagious disease[接触传染病], which will soon be known as AIDS.
(6) Here's what we can't perceive in the summer of 1981: That it's an almost pre-technological era, That what's missing from our pockets are cell-phones.® That what's missing from our homes and offices are personal computers.
(7) In 1981, people are often forced to communi-:ate in the tradition of face-to-face interaction. But hat requires friends, or at least acquaintances. I lardly know anyone. I work a late shift, driving out to fatal car crashes and murders and banging out a few paragraphs.
(8) I can't afford an apartment, so I live in a dorm oom at Stanford University. No phone. No TV. A suitcase of possessions. When I show up for work it the beginning of the week, I realize I haven't spoken to anyone in a couple of days. Maybe a waitress.
(9) Lonely? Hardly ever. I'm getting paid to do idult work, which is a novelty[n.新颖, 新奇, 新鲜, 新奇的事物].® I'm old enough to buy beer but have no responsibilities. Aimlessness is a luxury that few people appreciate until it's no longer a possibility. Our compulsion[n.强迫, 强制,] to get a life can cause us to get too much of one. We want more, always, of everything. In the summer of 1981, it's time that is abundant. It is impossible to feel rushed when you have no agenda or destination. Weekends are empty expanses [n.宽阔的区域]of time, waiting to be occupied by a clever inspiration.
(10) See "Raiders" again? Maybe.
(11) Or maybe just start driving, and see what happens beyond the next right turn.