Skip to content

Like a Snake Swallowing an Egg: Thoughts from Florida

2010-10-11 · Hank, a guest · watch on YouTube · Personal life · reflection essay

Back in Florida for a friend's wedding, Hank finds he had remembered his home state too negatively, and concludes that what he misses is not the place but the people he loved there.

What is said

00:00:00 — Morning in Florida: run, fish, pool; heat, air conditioning, everyone in SUVs

  • ★★ Hank wakes at nine, goes for a run, looks at some fish and, because it is so hot and humid, jumps into a pool; he is in Florida. — 00:00:00 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank says it is very hot everywhere the air isn't conditioned, so no one is outside and everyone, himself included, is stuck in huge SUVs. (playful) — 00:00:12 · Florida

00:00:29 — The rental 'real big truck'; a selectively negative memory of Florida; its downsides

  • ★ Enterprise rental car gives Hank a 'quadruple upgrade' to a 'real big truck'; he jokes that in Montana it would be called a boat, not a truck. (playful) — 00:00:24 · Montana
  • ★★★ Hank lived in Florida most of his life and, after moving away, saw much wrong with it; now he realizes his memory of it was selectively negative. (hedged) — 00:00:40 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank lists Florida's downsides: unnecessarily hot, a ridiculously bright sun, big cars needed everywhere, styrofoam cups, and fire ants, which stung him, deservedly. (playful) — 00:00:50 · Florida

00:00:58 — Fire ants (he got stung); things he loves: sweet tea, Waffle House, the variety of life

  • ★★ Hank says there are also things he loves: sweet tea, Waffle House, and a sun that breeds a variety of life Montana can't compare with. — 00:01:06 · Montana, Florida

00:01:29 — What he misses is the reason he's there: a friend's wedding and old college friends; the best reasons to love a place are people; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank realizes he misses not Florida but the reason he is there: a friend's wedding, with old college friends he hasn't seen in almost 10 years. — 00:01:29 · Florida
  • ★ Hank finds it extraordinarily upsetting that almost 10 years have passed since he graduated from college. (playful) — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ Hank says most of the best reasons to love a place are people: he loves Florida for the people he loved there and will keep loving forever. — 00:01:51 · Florida
  • ★ Hank says he walked away from the pool to film this because he didn't want his friends to hear him get sappy. — 00:02:04

Humor (significant)

  • Hank shows himself looking in the viewscreen after waking up, quoting a meme. — 00:00:01 > «My hair is a bird, your argument is invalid.»
  • Enterprise gives Hank a 'quadruple upgrade' to a 'real big truck'. — 00:00:35 > «we don't call something a truck unless you can throw a bull elk in the back of it.»
  • Off camera, someone eats something in two bites while friends watch and cheer. — 00:02:47 > «Like a snake swallowing an egg.»

Threads in this video

BR2_a0f72a7b23