Are there other people in America who listen to A Prairie Home Companion while they boil and sanitize their dildos on Sunday morning? It feels a little wrong to me, and I like that
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country mouse, city mousepickledmangoMarch 3 2004, 17:27:12 UTC
live from new york...i hear what you're saying. i often crave the country, my old home. interestingly, when i think about what i love about new york, it's not that it's liberal or that a very wide spectrum of ideas and ways of life are acceptable here.... what i love are the small explosions that happen constantly in this city between people that differ in every imaginable way. explosions that lead to argument, revelation, creation, poetry, new ideas. reactions that allow people to experience such raw human emotion within that urban freedom that allows one to express those very emotions. i'm not sure i believe the diversity required for this kind of chemistry could ever happen in a town.
but if towns might be your thing (at least eventually), a good way to track liberal towns right now is to follow the news closely on all the mayors who are marrying gay couples! just this week in my lovely state, the mayors of new paltz and nyack started performing gay marriages. both lovely towns, close to the city, and it'd be great to get you over in this corner of the country :)
Re: country mouse, city mousestrippedscrewMarch 4 2004, 21:32:55 UTC
What a great index by which to judge a community...gay marriages. I wouldn't have thought of it. :)
And in regard to the diversity needed for chemistry train of thought, you're exactly right. The homogeny small towns typically foster is something that I would be concerned about. I would miss the spark of city life, I'm sure. I also have to acknowledge that all the cities I've lived in have been little ones, relatively speaking.
Have you found ways to satisfying your occasional county yearnings while in the city?
Re: country mouse, city mousepickledmangoMarch 5 2004, 11:57:45 UTC
i really haven't found a way to get to the country frequently. it's tough without a car. i find myself frequently staring intensely at my one hanging fern, captivated by the green.
i've thought about how living in cities makes me worship humans and all that we can do and make. i love that we know the origins of new york, and that the origins were human. the whole place seems to me like lots of peoples' subconscious desires accidentally realized. it's endlessly fascinating.
but in the country i worship the mystery that is everywhere, that was ubiquitious in my childhood... in the tadpoles, the thunderstorms, the angry sleet. humans aren't exactly irrelevant, but almost. i love the responsibility that is lifted with the sense that people don't rule and can't rule. when i'm at my parents' house, part of me feels defensive about the "silly city people" attitude, but another part fundamentally agrees. silly city people, so convinced that they are powerful.
i'm grateful to enter the city with the background of a country person. it allows me to see the jumble of the city as not that different from an anthill or a spider web or any of the other very complicated constructions that animals build around themselves... to protect, to rule, to die in.
(no wonder kingsolver strikes such a chord, eh?)
by the way, i'm definitely in a bit of a funk. this winter i've almost not been able to bear this rigid work schedule, the lack of almost any time for myself, the seemingly inescapable conundrum of having to work so much to live here, but then not having the time/energy to pursue the creative endeavors that prompted me to move here in the first place. ya basta is right! time for spring and longer days!!
but if towns might be your thing (at least eventually), a good way to track liberal towns right now is to follow the news closely on all the mayors who are marrying gay couples! just this week in my lovely state, the mayors of new paltz and nyack started performing gay marriages. both lovely towns, close to the city, and it'd be great to get you over in this corner of the country :)
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And in regard to the diversity needed for chemistry train of thought, you're exactly right. The homogeny small towns typically foster is something that I would be concerned about. I would miss the spark of city life, I'm sure. I also have to acknowledge that all the cities I've lived in have been little ones, relatively speaking.
Have you found ways to satisfying your occasional county yearnings while in the city?
Reply
i've thought about how living in cities makes me worship humans and all that we can do and make. i love that we know the origins of new york, and that the origins were human. the whole place seems to me like lots of peoples' subconscious desires accidentally realized. it's endlessly fascinating.
but in the country i worship the mystery that is everywhere, that was ubiquitious in my childhood... in the tadpoles, the thunderstorms, the angry sleet. humans aren't exactly irrelevant, but almost. i love the responsibility that is lifted with the sense that people don't rule and can't rule. when i'm at my parents' house, part of me feels defensive about the "silly city people" attitude, but another part fundamentally agrees. silly city people, so convinced that they are powerful.
i'm grateful to enter the city with the background of a country person. it allows me to see the jumble of the city as not that different from an anthill or a spider web or any of the other very complicated constructions that animals build around themselves... to protect, to rule, to die in.
(no wonder kingsolver strikes such a chord, eh?)
by the way, i'm definitely in a bit of a funk. this winter i've almost not been able to bear this rigid work schedule, the lack of almost any time for myself, the seemingly inescapable conundrum of having to work so much to live here, but then not having the time/energy to pursue the creative endeavors that prompted me to move here in the first place. ya basta is right! time for spring and longer days!!
Reply
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