WEBVTT

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And this poem is
called "Tiger Beetle."

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Thanks for listening to these.

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"Tiger Beetle."

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"Discussing my Adderall
prescription with my doctor,

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And pondering what it would be
like to be able to concentrate

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On the important thing.

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The concept of justice, the
rise of fascism, lawn care,

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Whatever my doctor is
saying at this exact moment,

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And to not feel my
thoughts surging forward,

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Like, I wonder who
invented the ball jar.

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Can a blue whale's
heartbeat really be

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heard from over 2 miles away?

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Last week, I saw a documentary
on the tiger beetle

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And it moved so fast
while hunting, so fast

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It renders itself
temporarily unable to see.

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It has to stop to
refocus its eyes.

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And I thought, yes, yes, that
is exactly how my brain moves.

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Many times, it has moved so fast

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I can no longer see
what was in front of me,

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When what was in front
of me was America,

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The price of groceries,

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My wife saying I love you,

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And me saying, hey, did
I leave the stove on?

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Is snickersnee a real word?

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Why was Waterloo a
disaster for Napoleon?

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I should remember that.

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I studied history in college and
was amazed by the magnitude of

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Well, everything
and how when viewed

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from far enough in the future,

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None of us seemed
random anymore.

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The decline of an empire,

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The fires in the West,

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The floods right
here in Vermont,

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Where there are 16
species of tiger beetle,

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Each one rapidly
diminishing in number.

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And though it runs so quickly,

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Traversing distances 120
times the length of its body

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in under a second,

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There are still some
things no one can outrun.

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Be still, little
tiger beetle, I think.

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But the beetle is
electric, which reminds me,

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Isn't it messed up that Edison
also invented the electric chair

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and once electrocuted
an elephant?

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The motivation was
capitalism: to prove

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his competitor's product
was a more lethal conductor

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of electricity.

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I'd rather be an
orchestra conductor

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than a lethal conductor.

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And I think I could do it.

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I could wear a tux.

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I could stand before
the audience enthralled.

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I too could look elegant
If I lost maybe 10 pounds.

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I could wave my
arms as if I were

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the one making the music move,

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As if I could see the trumpet
blast and viola sighs,

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Fluttering above me, every
sound flexing in unison,

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As if connected the way
our disparate histories

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are connecting right now.

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And I'm pointing to each
individual note saying,

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Go here, go there, louder
for the people in the back

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And the tiger beetles
saying, man, I'm

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just trying to catch a
moth or an ant for dinner,

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But I keep moving too fast.

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And I say, no, it's not
that we're moving too fast.

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It's that time is accelerating
and life is too fast.

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But the beetle is a blur
already in the future

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or lost in my past.

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And either way, it's gone.

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The best living things are
always leaving this world.

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And my doctor is waving her
hand in front of my face,

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Asking about my blood pressure,

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The amount of sleep
I get each night,

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My anxiety on a
scale of 1 to 10,

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Asking, Matthew,
are you listening?

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Matthew, are you OK?

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Are you still with us?

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Are you even here right now?"

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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