rally in dc, and generally living the spontaneous life
on friday uu!chrissy invited me to come see the university's shakespeare company perform in the park, and during the intermission she asked me if i was coming to DC.
i'd been aware that the "carolina peace resource center" was chartering a bus to washington for the "bring them home now" rally, but i didn't know they were waiting until midnight on friday to leave. so i deliberated back and forth throughout the second half of the play, but i think i knew all along what was going to happen.
after the play i drove home, grabbed my toothbrush, and met chrissy at the bus terminal.
we drove all night and i thought we might sleep, but of course we talked the whole way. i realized with surprise that we were both the same age. i also realized that chrissy is too cool for me:
1. she's going to serve in the peace corps before she goes to grad school
2. when she comes back for grad school, it'll be a crunchy granola institution in vermont that doesn't accept GRE scores
3. she's hitchhiked (in california, nevada, around the south here, and in europe...)
4. she picks up hitchhikers, and talks to strangers and hobos with the same kind of brave altruism i've previously associated with religious boys.
5. she's attentive and nonjudgemental in the perfectly convincing way that i associate with psychotherapists (also with little mark and tony, also with chelsea and uu!diane.)
6. she's organizing to start a women's center on campus (u of south carolina needs one pretty badly)
7. there are things i'm forgetting
on the one hand it's great because it's been a long time since i met someone who really challenged my own, uh, radicality. i've gotten used to being either the craziest commie in the room, or tied with someone else who's equally crazy (but not moreso.) on the other hand it sucks, because the dynamic between us is too uneven for us to ever be good friends. i can't help but feel that she's treating me with genuine altruism rather than genuine liking.
ANYWAY, we arrived just after dawn and the rally was just getting started, and it was *fantastic.* I'd only ever been to the anti-choice marches that my catholic highschool used to send us on, so the progressive rally thing was a whole new experience for me. and wow was the energy different. the thing that struck me first was the fabulous music, not just the performers but in the march itself there were crazy indie-looking highschool kids with band instruments playing the strangest, catchiest songs. and people were dancing while they marched, and there were huge freakin' puppets, and people on stilts, and chants going on in different languages (mostly english and spanish, but i did hear some arabic) and the funniest damn signs.
one guy in my group had a sign that looked like that bumper sticker with the big W on it, you know the one i mean? but instead it said:
F
the president
one of the indie-looking highschool kids had one that said:
President Bush:
he is neither a president
nor a bush.
Discuss.
which is super enjoyable, but also so appropriate for a pretentious indie kid, right?
'course there were serious signs, too. the one that this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/politics/25protest.html
cites (Make Levees, Not War) was totally one of the kids on my bus.
marching took up most of the day, though, and we really didn't get to see many of the speakers or performers. nor did we get to check out the huge book fair taking place on the mall. jumped back on the bus around 7pm and dozed off and on most of the way home.
i'd been aware that the "carolina peace resource center" was chartering a bus to washington for the "bring them home now" rally, but i didn't know they were waiting until midnight on friday to leave. so i deliberated back and forth throughout the second half of the play, but i think i knew all along what was going to happen.
after the play i drove home, grabbed my toothbrush, and met chrissy at the bus terminal.
we drove all night and i thought we might sleep, but of course we talked the whole way. i realized with surprise that we were both the same age. i also realized that chrissy is too cool for me:
1. she's going to serve in the peace corps before she goes to grad school
2. when she comes back for grad school, it'll be a crunchy granola institution in vermont that doesn't accept GRE scores
3. she's hitchhiked (in california, nevada, around the south here, and in europe...)
4. she picks up hitchhikers, and talks to strangers and hobos with the same kind of brave altruism i've previously associated with religious boys.
5. she's attentive and nonjudgemental in the perfectly convincing way that i associate with psychotherapists (also with little mark and tony, also with chelsea and uu!diane.)
6. she's organizing to start a women's center on campus (u of south carolina needs one pretty badly)
7. there are things i'm forgetting
on the one hand it's great because it's been a long time since i met someone who really challenged my own, uh, radicality. i've gotten used to being either the craziest commie in the room, or tied with someone else who's equally crazy (but not moreso.) on the other hand it sucks, because the dynamic between us is too uneven for us to ever be good friends. i can't help but feel that she's treating me with genuine altruism rather than genuine liking.
ANYWAY, we arrived just after dawn and the rally was just getting started, and it was *fantastic.* I'd only ever been to the anti-choice marches that my catholic highschool used to send us on, so the progressive rally thing was a whole new experience for me. and wow was the energy different. the thing that struck me first was the fabulous music, not just the performers but in the march itself there were crazy indie-looking highschool kids with band instruments playing the strangest, catchiest songs. and people were dancing while they marched, and there were huge freakin' puppets, and people on stilts, and chants going on in different languages (mostly english and spanish, but i did hear some arabic) and the funniest damn signs.
one guy in my group had a sign that looked like that bumper sticker with the big W on it, you know the one i mean? but instead it said:
F
the president
one of the indie-looking highschool kids had one that said:
President Bush:
he is neither a president
nor a bush.
Discuss.
which is super enjoyable, but also so appropriate for a pretentious indie kid, right?
'course there were serious signs, too. the one that this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/politics/25protest.html
cites (Make Levees, Not War) was totally one of the kids on my bus.
marching took up most of the day, though, and we really didn't get to see many of the speakers or performers. nor did we get to check out the huge book fair taking place on the mall. jumped back on the bus around 7pm and dozed off and on most of the way home.