November 24, 2007

• Wanna Chill?

  Though some might think this phrase has a clear meaning, once investigated it becomes quite ambiguous.  A rare and freakishly literal person might think the person asking this desires to organize a communal ice bath.  However, others, who are more used to the phrase’s connotation, might intepret this phrase to generally mean, “Let’s get together before we figure out what we’re really going to do.”

  But both of these interpretations are wrong.  The fact is, chilling is in itself an activity that is one option among many for friends to do together.  Loosely defined, it means “An intentionally perpetuated state of low mental intensity and little or no phsyical movement.”  It might strike you that this definition makes chilling sound a lot like conscious sleep.  It is. 

  There are several other typical characteristics of chilling, though they need not necessarily be part of a chill time.  First, it is done by group of males, and second, it is done in a basement (preferably with a good chill mood to it, which is actually a sixth sense males possess: identifying the chillability of a basement.  If you ever hear a male say to someone, “You have a really nice basement,” he actually means, “I’d really like to chill down here sometime.”) 

  Believe it or not, people get together, and they chill.  This is the lone activity being done, which is interesting because it is an activity that is the perpetuated state of not doing an activity.  If you didn’t know that it was its own activity, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate this beautiful paradox that weaves itself so harmoniously into this idea that to some seems like the ultimately counterintuitive plan: trying to do nothing.

  So far you should have pictured for a normal chilling situation, several guys in a dim basement sitting around on couches in a dulled state of mind.   If not a person who chills regularly, you might protest that such an activity seems worthless in terms of relationships.  Actually, quite the opposite.  When sitting in the presence of other people who are chilling, sinking together with them lower and lower into a mental abyss of nothingness, you actually are experiencing an intimacy unreachable in your usual conscious state.  By using your minds to create this shared atmosphere of docile mental activity, where you can feel the mental stillness, you are, in essence, loving them.  It is a really beautiful thing, actually.

  Which brings us to another normative feature of chilling with other people.  It is perhaps inevitable that during chill time a stupid yet profound conversation may take place as result of a stupid yet profound question being asked by someone.  Here is an example.  All conversations are of course spoken extremely slow, and in the kind of tone of voice you always seem to use when saying something incredibly stupid:

  Guy 1: “Hey guys, isn’t it weird how you’re always with yourself? Like, wherever you go you’ll always be there too.  I eat with myself.  I go to sleep with myself.  Just can’t get away.”
  Guy 2: “Dude, that’s a really, really good point.”
  Guy 3: “Yeah, dude.  But then again, you can’t even see yourself.  Like I can see you, but I am me, so I can’t see myself in the room.”
  Guy 1: “Yeah.”
  Guy 2: “Woh.  How do we even know we’re here?”
  Guy 1: “You just gotta believe, man. You gotta have faith.”
  Guy 3: “I don’t know. I can’t even see my neck.  What if it’s not there? Then what?”
  Guy 1: “But dude, you can see your neck in the mirror.”
  Guy 3: “Yeah…(pause)…What about before they had mirrors?”
  Guy 1: “Mmmmm.”
  Guy 2: “Maybe they used water.”

  It is simply true that there are some conversations you can’t have while experiencing your normal mental livileness.  The logic of these conversations is simultaneously awesome and wrong. 

  In all these ways, chilling is really an escape from reality.  With all the hustle and bustle of the daily rush, chilling is almost a slice of heaven.  Haven’t you ever wondered if during this hectic thing called life you just hung up the mental phone line to all your worries and just stopped?  That is what chilling is; the closest you can get to just stopping.

  By this point you might have noticed the only thing that seems to missing from the portrait I’m painting is drugs.  It’s true; chillers seem to meet all the criteria of drug users.  But what I think is that drug users are actually just really bad at chilling.  They need the drugs to help them achieve the state; although good chill music (practically a genre to males who chill) can be a helpful and legal replacement.  So chilling is something you can actually be good at; my friend Nate King is really, really good at it.  He actually introduced me to the concept.  I can still remember the day: where we were, what the day looked like, everything. To a person who had been brainwashed by life’s implicit memo that you always have to be doing something, it blew my mind.  

  Philip: So what do you guys wanna do?
  Nate: Eh, nothing. This is good.
  Philip: But we’re not doing anything.
  Nate: Exactly.
  Philip: *head explodes*

  So, do you chill?  Are you good at it?  And lastly…do you wanna chill?

  • 2:59 am
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