Hi Virg. Thanks for the in depth response. I've posted my own response on my blog here: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?b=6746
Petrarch, thanks for you comment in my blog. I responded with another blog entry since my response got lengthy.
Oh I understand now. Thanks. It sounds like a nice experience. Actualy not sure if you have but check out my current blog on the election.
Hi Virg--Yes, that's right, it would be the park right near the Hilton. I was forgetting that was where you stayed. As for my comments, I also have always believed that most people are generally kind and decent as you say, and I think all people have at least some portion of good in them (my friends tend to tease me for being optimistic and idealistic to the brink of naivete). I wasn't talking at all about a change in my assessment of others, but of a revelation in terms of how much people could potentially open up to one another. I think, especially in major cities, we take for granted a certain guard and reserve that people have up when they're walking around, and there are certain judgments people tend to make about others for better or for worse (obviously to a certain degree being a little on guard walking around a city is a good idea). It's not that I don't generally feel perfectly happy towards the people in my neighborhood, or that I haven't met lots of friendly and helpful types, it's that the days around the election have produced this sense of euphoria around here that temporarily erased that usual reserve you expect when you're walking around a city. When I talked about everyone making eye contact and smiling at everyone else, I meant it literally. I think I hardly met a single person yesterday who didn't smile or wave like they knew me (imagine that happening as you walk around some area of Manhattan: it's remarkable). However, what's struck me more than the open demonstrations of joy, which I'm sure will be temporary, is that there has just been this subtle but powerful social shift, which I think may slowly become permanent, and which I think may partly have to do, not with a change in individuals, who are just as good or bad as they've ever been, but with certain large scale racial and economic tensions that I don't think I even fully recognized until there was a little release of them around this historic event. I think what I was trying to express is a glimpse into how peoples' attitudes toward each other could be very different in a lot of ways. The revelation was in seeing how a very practical step toward an ideal could be made. I wasn't expecting that.
Thanks for all that Petrarch. Then it was the park across from the Hilton when we stayed in Chicago. You said: "It's been a bit of a revelation to me. You go around thinking people behave in a certain way to each other and that's the way it is, and then it all changes suddenly and there's this glimpse of what could be instead..." I have never known most people to not be generous and good. It's the few that ruin it for the many. Perhaps I'm just an optimist but I think most people are generally kind and decent.
Hey Virg--I've got to say that being in Hyde Park Tuesday (I live about ten blocks from the Obamas' home) was one of the most amazing experiences imaginable, and not in the way I expected at all. It wasn't so much because people were running around partying, but that every person I met on the street had this glow of goodwill toward everyone else. I've never had this experience walking around an urban neighborhood before. Everyone I met made eye contact, smiled, had a good word for the people around them. There was this unbelievable sense of universal euphoria and a sense that we were all united. Mine is a generally peaceful neighborhood, but very diverse both racially and economically, and there are usually these sort of slight invisible, unspoken lines, sometimes you might say tensions, between some groups and others which just vanished on election day. I'm not sure I can explain how remarkable it felt. It sounds sappy, but the best way I can think to describe what the last few days in this area have been like is the embodiment of the dream MLK described in his speech. It really feels like a dream made real around here. I don't think I was prepared for that type of feeling at all and hadn't been thinking in those terms before election day. I thought everyone would be happy, but I had never envisioned this sudden warmth toward others. It's been a bit of a revelation to me. You go around thinking people behave in a certain way to each other and that's the way it is, and then it all changes suddenly and there's this glimpse of what could be instead... But I digress. Grant Park is along the Lake, and maybe you would remember it best as the park with the giant fountain in it if you went to see that. It's right by downtown, as you could see in the footage of the event, which shows the major downtown buildings right there behind them. I wasn't up there because you had to have tickets and I hadn't put enough time in on the campaign to merit an invite, but a couple of my friends went and said it was phenomenal. As for bluegrass, I explain a bit on the music thread how a general interest in folkmusic and a radio broadcast in college introduced me to the genre. Weirdly enough, I also had an amazing bluegrass experience while studying abroad in Italy, but perhaps that's a story for another time. Mostly, though, I just like listening to different kinds of music, figuring out what different genres have to offer and what I like about them.
Was Chicago in a thrill last night? Where's Grant park? Was that on the lake by the heart of town? Not the happiest night for me, but an important night for America. Oh by the way, how did a girl from California get into bluegrass?
No I haven't seen it. I will look for it. Thanks.
Death! ...although the more prosaic answer would be actor Bengt Ekerot, portraying the figure of death in Ingmar Bergman's film, The Seventh Seal (if you haven't seen it before, it's an absolute must see!!!). It's my Halloween avatar, and there's a larger pic. on the Halloween thread. Figured I might as well join the specteral clan.
Who exactly is that in your new avatar?
