Driving through the Alps in thick snow with no sleep, everything was blurry and it was like that all day, hard to stay awake and I was feeling drunk even though I wasn't. The afternoon was like United Nations kindergarten, full of earnest exercises aimed at solving various major world issues in 30 minute meetings making ample use of whiteboards, pipe cleaners, and cardboard boxes, holding problems, ideas, and solutions respectively. But the solutions were pipe cleaner thin and hollow like the boxes, though some contained great supplies of faith, put there by my colleagues and occasionally even by me. You've got to put your faith somewhere, and a thin veneer of idealism over a thick coat of camaraderie will make any material seem strong, at least until the weather changes or things become even blurrier late at night in a cable car.
