I have long believed that I’m a pretty even split between introvert and extrovert.
A couple of weeks ago I spent three days in a tradeshow booth in Las Vegas talking with a hundred HR professionals each day. By the time the final evening came around, the extrovert in me was dead. And as such, I was ready to sit by myself in my hotel room and watch television.
Outside my thirty-third story window a rhytmic bass beat thumped steadily like a perpetual drum. In the Casino below, gamblers sat at the craps and black jack tables shrouded in the grey haze of cigarette smoke. Just as I was calling it a night at 9 p.m. the Vegas vampires were coming back to life.
The blue glow of Tuesday night cable drowned out the flashing lights and LCDs of the strip, and rifle shots overpowered the subwoofers below. You see, after a few slot machine-like cycles of the 47 channels, I settled on AMC. This classic movie station was airing Robert Redford’s Jeremiah Johnson. It met me where I was at and it fit my mood perfectly: the polar opposite of Las Vegas.
I watched nearly the entire film.
And loved it.